The weight is over

Scarlett playing at Port Discovery in Baltimore...

She made friends whenever she could find another child who would pay attention to her!
She put herself in jail this time! This was part of a "sink" at Port Discovery.


Scarlett playing in the Volkswagon Bug. There was another kid in the backseat who wasn't paying adequate attention to her.

Bonnie playing in one of the tunnels with Scarlett.
Scarlett and Flossy at lunch before Port Discovery.

It turns out that Scarlett still hates snowflakes hitting her face. She was really excited about going out into the snow to play, but it didn't last long!

After I shoveled for the third time that day. Paul timed his trip to the keys to correspond with a sick baby, mommy, and a 6-8 inch snow storm. Shoveling thunder snow with the plague.
She LOVES Bacchus. He often lets her catch him. In this picture she had just given him a kiss.
This is a swim diaper. On her head. Everytime we took it off, she asked us to put it back on her.
This was the birthday colossal cupcake we got for Kristie's 30th birthday when she was in town. Almost 3 1/2 pounds of red velvet!

Scarlett started trying to ride the dogs on her own recently. Both of them are very patient with her!

I looked at our records back to November and Scarlett has never weighed 21lbs. As a matter of fact, in November she was close to 21lbs, but ended up getting sick and quickly went down to 19. It is now nearly February and technically Scarlett hasn't gained an ounce since November (still just under 21lbs last time we weighed her). The odd thing is that our arms have been telling a different story. Are we out of shape? Probably. Is she actually gaining weight? Possibly. A couple of days ago we decided to weigh her again. 22lbs 3 oz??? Where did the 21's go? She gained over a pound in a week. Our arms knew what they were talking about. She has consistently been above 22lbs since that weigh-in.
Side note: shortly after weighing her, she puked on daddy and went slightly under the 22lb mark.

Her weight gain is certainly not from a lack of activity. I remember back before we found out she was a "she". We watched our little embryo do back flips on ultrasound, and we were positive she was a he. Nothing has changed (Of course we know the gender, but she is still the energizer bunny.) We certainly understand that she needs to run/play quite a bit these days or we don't get much rest. Any chance we have, we let her go. Whether it's running through an empty restaurant/bar area, a department store, or front yard, we realize the more she moves, the calmer she will soon become. Not that it's a bad thing. She fills out our entertainment card, and strangers constantly comment on her energy and looks. Actually, she makes sure they notice her!

So... this weekend (Jan 28-30) was the only time I spent with Scarlett this week. I know it sounds rough, but I was stuck in Key Largo Sunday through Thursday. Actually it was a work conference, and for those jealous that I missed the horrible weather in DC, just remember that I spent a TOTAL of 8 waking hours out of 70 NOT attending work seminars, presentations, trainings, or lunch/dinner breaks. Sounds fantastic, eh? Why do companies spend $100,000+ at these resorts when you could get the same pleasure (or lack of ) by spending a week in Dundalk? I had a 1200 sq ft suite with beautiful tile floors, a full kitchen, a divider separating the king bed + luxurious bath from the living room/kitchen area. In 4 nights and 5 days, I spent 5 minutes in the kitchen, 25 hrs in bed, and the rest waking up and getting ready to attend the conference. At least I had nice things to look at during those precious minutes! I guess I learned a few good nuggets, but other than that, the conference basically kept me from spending time with my family. I was able to play golf once. It was the first time in 4+ years that I swung a club. No practice, not my clubs, and after the first 6 or 7 holes, I essentially played Bogey golf. Not bad for a scrub!

Anyway, I'm bitter because Scarlett and Shonna were sick and I couldn't help them. When I returned, I made sure I spent as much time as possible with my family. I bathed Scarlett a couple of times, put her down Thurs-Sat, and basically tried to give Shonna as much time to sleep as possible (although with Shonna's prescribed Codeine cough syrup, it was difficult to keep her awake!). Scarlett returned the favor by puking on me. That's my girl...

On Friday, I spent the work day with Scarlett. All of this sickness talk wasn't really an issue. Was it just a myth? She was perfect! ;) Actually I was able to get all of my work calls in without an interruption. It was more luck than anything else. When I had a 90 minute call in the morning, she was busy playing with her toys in her play pen. I had a call at 1pm and she went to bed at 12:50. I had a call at 2 and as luck would have it, the call was canceled and she woke up at 2:10! What can I say. It was as smooth as silk :) The weekend wasn't all peaches and cream but I couldn't ask for a better day back with my daughter. As I mentioned, she did puke on me, but that was just Scarlett saying "welcome back"!

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Backing up a bit, the last time we blogged we told you about Scarlett's first (and most horrible) haircut. We got that fixed at an adult salon the next day. Although her hair is still quite short, it looks much better and she still manages to be pretty darn cute. Maybe we're imaging it, but it also seems thicker now. It wasn't long after her haircut that Scarlett and I started getting sick. She started getting sick on a Wednesday. By Thursday, I was also pretty sick and had started losing my voice. Scarlett wasn't sleeping well (her usual stuffiness resulting in her inability to sleep). We were supposed to go to a kid concert at Jammin Java on Saturday morning but Scarlett and I were too sick to go and even Paul who is usually impervious to illness had started feeling crappy. That evening we met up with my grad school officemate, Kristie, who happened to be in town for the weekend. We went to dinner, which was nice except that Scarlett came out of her illness long enough to want to run around the restaurant. We hung out at the house for a while after dinner and gave Kristie her belated birthday cake -- a massive cupcake from Crumbs Bakery in Clarendon. We weighed it and it was over 3 pounds!

Paul had to leave on Sunday morning for his business trip and by the time he left, I was in pretty bad shape. I couldn't talk at all and was constantly in really painful coughing fits (which really hurt my sore throat!). The worst part was that Scarlett wasn't feeling very well either, so she was VERY clingy and had little to no interest in independent play or her toys unless I was playing with her too. I felt worse about being a crappy mom to a sick baby than I did physically but couldn't do much about it. My sister was in Ohio and Dave was in Costa Rica (Key Largo, Costa Rica?? Why don't they ever take me?!) so essentially my entire support network was out of town. At one point I considered hiring a babysitter to come over to watch her for a while so I could try to rest but I felt bad bringing someone in to watch a sick baby, especially since she was really fussy. That night she fell asleep on my chest on the couch when not 5 minutes later, she threw up. A LOT. The worst part really wasn't the mess, but how tired she was. She just wanted to put her head back on my chest and go to sleep but I couldn't let her because I was disgusting. I realized while I had the laryngitis how much I rely on my voice with her. I'm constantly talking to her, singing to her, and reading to her under normal circumstances. Without a voice, it seemed very... quiet. She kept trying to get me to talk (e.g., pointing to things, trying to get me to sing itsy bitsy spider or pat-a-cake, handing me books to read) and it felt very neglectful to not respond to her.

The next few days were pretty similar. I took her to daycare on Monday and stayed home from work to try to recover enough to care for her in the evening. With enough cold medication and caffeine, I made it through the days okay and managed to even play with her some but at night I had to stay up late catching up on work and then woke up every 15 minutes coughing once I finally did go to sleep. Between the laryngitis and Paul's hectic work schedule while he was gone, we also barely got to talk to him. It wasn't our best week! To top it off, we ended up finally getting a substantial snowfall -- somewhere between 6 and 8 inches! It snowed a bit the night before... enough to warrant my shoveling before I went to work. I picked Scarlett up early from daycare because we were supposed to start getting "Thunder Snow" during rush hour and I wanted to make sure we were off the roads. It turned out to be a good thing I did because by all accounts, it was the worse commute anyone had ever seen, with lots of people just abandoning their cars on the street. The heavy snow started around 4 PM. Scarlett and I watched the snow out the window and she got REALLY excited. She kept bringing her coat and shoes to me to try to get me to take her outside. Finally, around 5 PM I decided it was time to go out and shovel for the first time (the news said it was going to be wet and heavy so shovel early and often!). We put her snow suit on her, got her all bundled up and she was bouncing with excitement ready to go outside. We got out there and... she started crying. She was a little fussy in my arms, but if I put her down, all hell broke loose. She was okay on the porch, but as soon as the snowflakes hit her face, she was NOT a happy camper.

My plan had been to let her play in the snow while I shoveled. That was not going to happen. I ended up doing the entire first round of shoveling with one arm while I held her in the other. Not an easy way to go, but luckily at that point it was only about 2 inches. By the time we got back in, she and I were both hurting. As it turns out, being out in thunder snow with a cold isn't really a good idea. By then it was coming down 2 inches per hour, so I'd planned to go back out in an hour. Instead, Scarlett and I shared some hot chocolate and snuggled up on the couch for a while, both feeling sorry for ourselves. I got my second wind just before 8. I re-bundled and decided there was no way I was taking her back out there, so I left her inside the gate and left the door open so that she could see me through the storm door. She screamed the entire 30 minutes it took me to do the second round of shoveling. She tried to climb over the gate and got her foot stuck so when i came back in she was hobbling around with one shoe on. She hadn't played with any of her toys, but in a sign of protest, she had taken all of her toys our of her playpen and thrown as many as she could on the other side of the gate. Sigh. It looked like a tornado had gone through. You have to give her credit for her communication skills.

By morning the snow had stopped. We had breakfast and I again listened to her scream as a shoveled the rest of the snow. Well, everything except the part of the walkway that was ow under our broken tree. We have a single ugly tree in our yard and we lost 3 of its 5 large branches in the storm. It could have been worse! I was excited about finally having the opportunity to try Scarlett's new sled out. I was determined to "reward" her for her "patience" while I shoveled so I quickly put her back into her snow suit and brought the sled outside. She initially seemed much happier with the situation. There weren't any snowflakes hitting her in the face and she liked making snowballs and then throwing them into the cement and watching them break into a million pieces. She also liked eating the snow. When I put her on the sled, she was initially having fun, but then wanted to be held. I picked her up and we trudged through the snow a hill a few blocks down. A bunch of neighborhood kids were out sledding down the hill with a few parents standing watch. I pushed Scarlett up the hill on the sled and pulled her back down. She laughed all the way to the bottom. Once we hit the bottom, she started crying. And crying... and crying! We stopped for a snack (cereal bar and milk) until she seemed okay to proceed. We did one more trip up (and down) the hill (excellent exercise for me!) until it became clear that she was not in the mood. I pushed her back home and she cried the entire way but at that point I couldn't manage her in one hand and the sled in the other, so she just had to go for a ride. Man would I have paid someone to push me around on a sled that day!

Once we got back she was super fussy until I let her curl up on my chest on the couch again. I think she just wasn't feeling very well, so I finally accepted that we might be too sick to take advantage of the snow and we stayed in the rest of the day, eating chicken noodle soup and resting. She took a lot of hot baths and showers to help with the congestion and seemed to be managing her disappointment around not getting any bedtime stories. She ended up being very easy to put down those nights -- she was usually asleep in 5 minutes or less! Very kind of her!

The next day, I was starting to have a bit of a voice again and she woke up in a very good mood. She seemed to be starting to get over her cold. I had gone to the doctor on Tuesday who had said that both of us should be getting better any day. Just in time for Daddy to come home! We took it easy all day but I had said "Daddy comes home today!" and Scarlett was running around all day saying "Dada, da da, da da". We were very excited when his delayed flight finally landed around 7:45 that night. Woo hoo!

Scarlett has been adding new words to her vocabulary all the time. Just while Paul was gone, she started saying "bang, bang", "bath", "dance", and "yuck." She loves onions (sauteed, carmelized, vinegary), greek yogurt (which she thinks is ice cream), baked potatoes, sour cream, calamari, coq au vin, pickles, asparagus, miso soup, cereal, tofu, seaweed... Every time I think there is no chance she'll eat that, she ends up liking it. She seems to really like strong or tart flavors, like vinegar and lemons. Bizarre. She clearly understands almost everything now. Tonight I asked is she wanted to take a bath and she immediately got down off the couch, ran over to the gate, started to climb out until I let her out, ran up stairs, waited at the door to her room until I let her in, ran into the bathroom and went straight to the tub and pulled the curtain back. I thought that was pretty good (a) comprehension and (b) focus for an almost 15 month old! It's amazing how fast that happened. She is way too much of a little person for my comfort!

Fourteen months without an ER visit was an accomplishment. Right??

On Wednesday night Paul had a business dinner to attend so Scarlett and I were planning to spend the evening together. Dave asked if I wanted to go to spin class with him and they happened to have an opening in the Kidz Club for Scarlett during the class time, so we decided to make a night of it. After a very tearful departure at the Kidz Club (mostly Scarlett, although I was getting pretty close as she tried to chase after me with extended arms), Dave and I had a great (sweaty) spin class and were ready for dinner. We picked Scarlett up and tried to go to Rock Bottom but it was too packed so we headed to the lesser Chevy’s. Not the most delicious option, but it was also in the mall and thus didn’t require going out into the cold or moving the car.

Scarlett was ready to rock as usual. The following day was the first anniversary of Dave’s cancer diagnosis, so we planned to have a quiet dinner and reflect on his crazy year. Scarlett had other plans. She really didn’t want to sit still at all, so I kept taking her out into the mall hallway to let her run while Dave sat inside at the table. He’s a patient man. Anyway, after 4 or 5 laps back and forth in the hallway, Scarlett started playing her games again. You know, the one we described before in which she asks me to hold her hand while she walks and then randomly goes limp in an attempt to get me to drag her through a public place. Well, this time, I’m not sure what happened exactly, but she immediately started crying. I got a knot in the pit of my stomach and knew something was wrong, but hoped that she just twisted something a little. It could have been that she just pulled down harder than usual or that I pulled up to keep her from hitting the floor, but regardless of how it happened, she was in pain. I picked her up and she immediately curled up into me in the fetal position. She usually tucks both arms under her belly against my chest when she does that, but this time, she was mainly tucking her right arm in and leaving her left arm hanging there.

I went back in to the restaurant and sat down next to Dave. Scarlett was crying pretty steadily at that point. I explained what happened as I tried to feel through her sweater dress to see if I could find any physical differences between her right and left arms. At that point I wasn’t sure whether it was her wrist, elbow, or shoulder. I finally decided that it was her elbow. I thought I felt some swelling compared to the right side and every time she tried to move that arm, she cried in pain. As I told Dave that I was going to take her to the emergency room, he recalled a story from his childhood in which his parents was overreacted about his shoulder getting popped out of joint and rushed him to the emergency room… He told me it was probably just pulled or strained. Uh huh. Even if that had been the case, I tried to politely pretend his story was going to make a difference in deciding my next move as I quietly planned my trip to the ER and asked him to try to reach Paul (my cell phone was in the car).

Within 5 or 10 minutes, she was crying consistently anymore. She was alternating between normal Scarlett (trying to feed me with her right hand, smiling) and crying in pain and nuzzling into my chest. She was holding her left arm tight into her belly but sort of limp. When she did happen to move that arm, she cried immediately. Dave noticed it too and not only agreed that my ER plan might be a good one after all, but offered to take us himself. I was willing to accept the possibility that I would be laughed out of the ER. Better to find out then that I was worried about nothing than to find out the next day that I should have done something that could have made her pain go away.

Off we went to Virginia Hospital Center’s ER. Well, that is after I left 2 voicemails for Paul and a text message telling him we were going there. Dave also decided to expand on my “We are in the ER” text message in a few others. Good for him. J I was not in the mindset to be too concerned with how Paul might react. I was focused on my baby being in pain! The ER was as great as an ER can be. They took us back immediately. As we sat down and I explained what happened, the nurse immediately said “nursemaid’s elblow.” Head slap. I vaguely remembered Leila telling me a story about taking Kazia to the ER for something called nursemaid’s elbow as a result of her and her brother swinging Kaz by the arms. I calmed down a little bit when I heard that because I remembered the cure being pretty easy and involving a doctor popping it back into place.

Scarlett was still pressed against me but I decided I better taker her dress off so we could see her arm. That was not a fun process. Then they needed to take her blood pressure. It was a tiny little thing that looked like a piece of tape with a glowing red light. Normal Scarlett would have thought it was cool. Injured Scarlett stopped breathing and did everything she could to make sure the man could NOT take her blood pressure. I kept assuring him that she was normally a very happy baby but his only remark was “in the last hospital I worked in, they separated adults from children and I never had to deal with this.” My guess is that he didn’t have any kids of his own. He finally guesstimated based on splitting the difference between a finger and a toe reading.

We waited for maybe 15 minutes for the doctor to come back to us. He too quickly said it was nursemaid’s elbow (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000983.htm) also known as a partial dislocation. He said his own kids had it a couple of times. Within two minutes, he had popped it back into place (this involved him holding her elbow while bending her arm up, palm up and her crying hysterically in the process). He said he would send us to get an Xray done just to be safe but that by the time we got back, she’d probably be moving it around like normal. We again waited about 15 minutes before a nice nurse came to wheel us (yes, me lying in a hospital bed with Scarlett still curled up on my chest in the fetal position) to radiology. By the time we got there, she was already feeling better. She was smiling and laughing and playing games, although she still wasn’t moving her arm. Everything was great until they made me lay her down on the bed while I stood over her. She started bawling. Even though I was essentially still wrapped around her, she acted like I had left her alone in the middle of a field. Three pictures and positions later, she was back in my arms, smiling again and laughing as I sang silly songs to her. When we got back to the ER, Paul was there waiting for us, still in a suit.

Just as predicted, she was now clapping, shaking her arms above her head, and doing all of her “tricks.” She was in nothing but a diaper, happy as a clam. No one would ever have known that she and I had both been scared witless just an hour before. On our way out of the ER, she wanted to walk, so we put her down and held her hand. Immediately, she did the exact same thing that got her in there in the first place. Even one of the nurses said “Oh my God, she just did it!” and another nurse complained that he missed it but wanted to see what we were describing. Sigh. That’s our Scarlett.

A special shout out to Uncle Dave for again being my rock and bearing with me through the panic that was our first ER trip. We didn't get to give it the justice it deserved, but I couldn't be more thankful that we can CELEBRATE his first cancerversary. We love you!

The Butcher of McLean

We are HUGE fans of the Organic Butcher in McLean. Decent prices, great meat, and amazing service. Unfortunately that is not what I am referring to in this week's blog. Nope, I am talking about the kind of butcher who terrorizes families with sharp pointed objects, slicing through their victims with no conscience. Butcher's who leave mothers terrified, leave babies mangled, and turn fathers into vigilantes. Yes, I am talking about the kid hair stylist. Scarlett had her first haircut today, and as you can tell by the lead-in (and the pictures), it didn't go too well. At the beginning of the day, she had bangs down to her chin, but the hair on the back of her head was still behind due to the early infancy rub-off. Mommy and I quickly researched our options in the North Arlington/McLean area and we discovered Eclips Kids salon. We were happy to learn that a same-day appointment was available (not to mention the party and spa options). The staff was extremely friendly, and there were plenty of toys and DVDs to keep our toddler happy. When the haircut began, Scarlett was a little uncomfortable and started fussing. It took us 5 minutes or so to figure out the best way to comfort her, and she soon settled down quite a bit (after Mommy went to hide in another part of the salon). We instructed the stylist on the bangs and the cut in general. Although the bangs were too long, we wanted to keep some length and angle them down the right side (the stylist's left). Mommy specified a sort of shag cut that would just make the differences in length less obvious. It was difficult to see exactly what the stylist was doing because I spent most of my attention on keeping Scarlett happy, but the cut didn't go as planned. Initially it seemed as though the bangs were cut too short and uneven, as was the back. I hoped that my perception was off, and things would work out. It wasn't and it didn't! Although there was a major blow dryer issue that freaked out Scarlett (no fault of the stylist), there was no excuse for the cut Scarlett received (and I assume the blow dryer normally makes its appearance AFTER the major part of the cut is complete). A couple of minutes after we walked out the door, we realized the lower left side hadn't been touched, so Shonna walked back in so the "stylist" could fix the issue. We didn't know the extent of the disaster as a whole until the hair dried and we took out the hair clips that hid much of the damage.

Currently, Scarlett's hair is completely uneven throughout and is way shorter than we requested. Of course the length wouldn't be as much of an issue if the cut wasn't so horrendous. To be completely blunt, we could have done a better job without question and without training. How a trained stylist allowed a client, let alone our little girl, to walk out the door with a cut like that is beyond us. I sent a lovely email to Eclips this evening. I'll let you know how it turns out...

This incident capped off a busy week filled with playfulness and pain, escapade and emergency room visits.
Playfulness- multiple visits to parks and kiddie playrooms. Also, Scarlett is extremely playful these days. She is so creative
Pain- Scarlett falls, bumps into things constantly
Escapade- Scarlett is a little mischievous in a prankster sort of way. Sometimes her antics cause issues, and this week one incident landed her in the...
Emergency Room- Nursemaids Elbow. Shonna can explain (see last post).

We have been describing how our always energetic baby has become a total handful over the last few weeks. She is really just nonstop, so Paul and I have sort of vowed to try to get her as much exercise as possible as often as possible. This week was a good time to try it out because we had a three day weekend.

On Friday it was my turn home with Scarlett. We started the day off with a trip to the Pediatrician’s office to follow up on her one year visit (the iron deficiency), her rash from Sunday's pool experience, and the ER trip. In the waiting room, Scarlett was really excited about the Scarlett sized table and chairs and the other kids. She was being Scarlett, trying to get the little boys to play with her and climbing all over everything. One of the dad's was really impressed by her climbing skills at her age. I want to say we're proud of her, but really, I want her to get a healthy fear of falling.

We had to wait about 45 minutes, which is pretty unusual there. They recently switched to all electronic medical records, so I attribute the wait to growing pains. When we went back, we saw someone I've never even heard of. She was fine. Like all of the doctors there, she seemed totally competent. Like half of the doctors there, we seemed to be trading a little more expertise for a little less bedside manner. For example, one of the big reasons we scheduled the appointment was that Scarlett has been slightly anemic since birth. At her one year appointment, they told us to start giving her iron supplements and bring her back in 6-8 weeks to have her levels checked. If they weren't above a certain threshold, they'd have to do more tests. As the doctor was asking me about the iron supplements, I explained that we give them to her 1-2 times per day. She suggested giving her orange juice to help get her to take it. After explaining that we had generally been avoiding juice because one of the doctor's there basically forbids juice, I told her that we don't have a problem getting Scarlett to take her iron. In fact, Scarlett loves all medicine and will cry for it -- pointing to the cabinet where we keep it and saying "I want that." The doctor was very surprised, noting that most babies hate it because it tastes pretty bad. That would have been fine, but she continued on to explain that I should not let my baby drink the entire bottle of Iron because she would get very, very sick. Gosh, I am so glad that she told me! Here I had just placed an order for 2 cases of the stuff and planned to give her a bottle of it for dinner that night. I realize that doctors are smarter than the majority of the population, but that doesn't mean they have to treat us all like idiots.

In any case, Scarlett's levels were fine -- even better than they expected, so no need for additional tests. Ironically, she was great while they did the finger prick but was really not happy about having a band aid put on her finger. Who knows. Everything else was uneventful other than another doctor walking into the room as we waited for the Iron results and asking me about little Josephine. She seemed pretty annoyed when I explained that she had the wrong room. I'm glad they waited to switch to electronic records until we already liked this place!

After the doctor, we stopped at lunch at Sushi Zen and met Paul there. Scarlett did great with the food -- she loves Miso soup and Udon noodles and even tried a little seaweed salad. What she did not do well with was sitting still. I called Paul and told him to hurry because I need help to calm the beast. We then headed downstairs to J.W. Tumbles for the open gym. She definitely need to run, jump, and climb. She had a great time. Her favorite activities were throwing the balls, sliding down the slide (the climbing back up) and running back and forth through the other kids. Next was nap time (only 40 minutes) and playing with Mommy.

On Saturday, I had an appointment in the morning, so Paul and Scarlett went to the gym (Paul to the gym and Scarlett to Kidz Club). Supposedly Scarlett just ran laps through the Kidz Club the whole time. After her nap, we took her to the playground by our house with the slide that she loves. Well.... the beginning of the Kidz Club was a little difficult. She wouldn't let me (daddy) leave. If I put her down for a second, she would stop breathing. If I shifted her into a better position, she would cry. Eventually I was able to play the "catch me" game where I move her towards someone and pull her back. She always smiles with that one. It seemed to work and I was able hand her off and run away. A short workout later, and I was back to pick her up. She must have been running quite a bit. Her face was flushed just short of sweating. We made our way out of the mall after a few "how cute" comments and headed to potbelly to grab some sandwiches. We walked out of the car and I heard another "look at the cute baby!" in a cool African accent. This woman was really excited to see her. When Scarlett lit up with a smile it completely made her day. The older woman with her commented, "I've seen her around here before". Huh? Well its possible I guess! We get around, but not so much in the cold weather.

On Sunday, we had a playdate in the morning at the National Building Museum. Corinne was in town and was planning to go to a museum with Piri and Linnea, so we made it a big group and I also invited Jacy, Joel, and Liam. The museum was great. It was HUGE with lots of space for the kids to just run. They also had lots of different kinds of blocks for them to play with in the middle of the floor. We didn't even look at any of the exhibits, but the space was perfect and it was free. Scarlett is really into blocks, cars, and balls right now, so she had a blast. They had a cool fountain in the middle that she kept trying to jump into, but other than that it was great and fun to hang out with everyone else.

After the museum, we put her down for a nap (another short one!) and had planned to take her to the pool that evening. We decided to try for a warmer activity, so we tried the play area at Tyson's Corner Mall. It would be really cool, except that no one polices the place and not all parents seem to care what their kids are doing. You have to be less than 42" to enter the play area, but there were boys in there who weren't much shorter than me and they were playing tag. Paul and I both turned primal on a few kids for nearly plowing through our princess. She had fun and definitely threw a fit when we tried to pry her away from the place, but we were very nervous the whole time. It was packed with way too many older kids. She seemed to love the activity and get really excited watching the other kids. It's really interesting to watch her. She kept going up to other kids and trying to get them to play with her. Some would take, others not so much. But she was never discouraged. She kept approaching people innocently looking for attention. She definitely has a bit of a shy, reserved side and isn't aggressive with the big kids, but I was impressed by her ability to keep reaching out to the others.

On Monday after breakfast it was off to the J.W. Tumbles playzone. The place was crazy since it was a holiday. We actually had to wait in the hall until it cleared out some and they made it through the waitlist. It wasn't bad though because Scarlett made friends with some other children. She played with two little boys her age for a little while but eventually decided the bigger girls were more interesting and did some "monkey see, monkey do" shadowing. Once we got in there, she was in heaven. There are activity cubes lining a hall leading up to a two-story play area. Her favorite was of course the slide. This one was particularly fast and she figured it out on her own. She'd crawl up to the edge of the slide and then sit on her butt and go down feet first. She kept trying to climb back up, but that's against the rules so we had to keep a close eye on her. She crawled all through the play zone, playing with other children some but mainly beating on the balloon-like things coming out of the ceiling and playing with balls that were as big as she is. Luckily she got really hungry, so we were able to get out of there without too much of a fight.

Monday evening Paul went to the doctor because his finger has been bothering him all week. It turned out to be sort of an internal hangnail, which he had to have cut out of his finger. A few narcotics later, Paul wasn't able to join us in the pool, but he went with us as I gave Scarlett her weekly 30-minute swimming session. You'd think that after all of that activity she'd be pretty mellow when we got home. Not so. She was still running back and forth, bouncing all over the couch, and chasing Bacchus.

Yes, I was taking narcotics legally for those concerned. The doctor gave me Percocet, which didn't phase me until I received the generic version with a name containing Oxycodone. Isn't that the one you want to avoid??? I've watched a few Intervention episodes... Well, about 5 minutes after leaving the Drs office I realized why I was prescribed such a strong painkiller. I guess a scalpel and scissors do cause pain to a finger when used properly...

A few details about her development this week. She is doing really well with her language skills, although most of the time Paul and I are probably still the only ones who know what she's saying. For example, her "I want that" and "please" have become more regular and clear. She has mastered "Bacchus" and is saying "kitty" more. She is singing along to songs a lot now and when she sees a sheep says "Baaa." She even said "Puzzle" yesterday (and that one was very clear!). I swear that she's also started calling her daddy "Paul" in addition to "dada." It's pretty exciting that we're able to understand more and more of what she is saying, and vice versa. As I said, she is really really really energetic. Did I mention she is pretty hyper? It is definitely a challenge to take her any place where she can't roam. I've started scoping out places with long, wide halls that aren't crowded as possible destinations for us just for that purpose.

Ice Cream

Excitement

Snuggling

Cereal