Healthwatch Update

My Mommy took me to the doctor yesterday to see about fixing my cold. I was definitely nervous about going back there since it seems every time we visit the doctor she gives me painful shots, and I end up feeling worse than when I went in. Anyway, she looked me over an weighed me. I now weight 22 pounds! I was too wriggly for them to check my height, but I think I'm still a little on the short side. Mommy said that in the first time in a while, people are starting to guess that I'm younger than I really am perhaps owing to my small (but powerful) stature. The doctor prescribed some cough medicine and some antibiotics and sent Mommy and me off to get them. We had to go to three drugstores before someone actually had the medicines we were after.

We got back around 2pm. I figured Mommy would want to start me on the medicines right away so I could get healthy sooner, but she decided to wait. Apparently, she read that the meds had to be given every 12 hours and she didn't want to get up at 2am. I don't see what's wrong with getting up then. In fact, 2am is one of the best times to jump around. Anyway, she waited until 8pm to give me meds. I didn't really like the taste of them though---reminded me too much of yucky baby food. Actually, I'm not as against baby food as I once was. It's sort of okay. The problem is that Mommy keeps ruining the best part of the activity: holding and chewing and banging the spoon. Just when I'm starting to get a good rhythm going banging my spoon, she takes it away to refill it with more food. I'll eat the food to humor her so I can get the spoon back (sometimes).

Monday Night Football

My grandmother Timek got me a new toy when I was back east, a small green textured football. Last night, perhaps inspired by Monday Night Football, which was on TV, my Daddy and I played football together. He would sort of roll the football around the room and then we would race to see who could get it first. Lots of times I got the football before he did. I also tackled him a couple of times (once for a huge loss of yardage). Footballs are funny---they don't roll like normal balls do. Insead they weave around crazily dodging this way and that. It's funny to watch a football roll. Mommy just sat on the couch and rolled her eyes as we "boys" wrestled around together. Wait---it's a fumble!!! Gotta go.

Weekend Walks

This weekend, I got to go on some endless walks with my Daddy. The weather right now is different than I ever remember it being. It's not as hot (only in the high 60s) and the leaves of the trees are turning colors. As I ride by in my storller, I like to reach out and grab the leaves and the bushes. Because of my cold, I find it much more comfortable to nap in the stroller than on my back. Somehow napping sitting up leads to a lot less coughing than lying down does. Anyway, we walked for about 10 miles each day. I don't think there's any more tread left on the wheels of my stroller.

Sleepless Nights

I hate this cough. It's driving me completely nuts. During the day when I'm up and about, it's not really a problem, but at night when I'm trying to sleep, it's a big pain. Tonight, Mommy got me up and took me to the bathroom to be "steamed" by the water vapor from the shower on the theory that this would fix me. That didn't turn out to be right. It just made me damp and still just as prone to coughing as before. It looks like next week I'll get to visit a doctor to figure out what is wrong with me.

Out in the Cold

While I've had little colds before, this is the worst cold I've had in my life. It's really hard to breathe with my nose all stuffy. Bottles just don't taste as good as they used to (plus it's really hard to coordinate sucking and breathing when your nose is stuffy). Finally, all these darn time changes (Mommy tells me there is ANOTHER one tonight) have me completely confused. I don't think Mommy and Daddy like this any better than I do. I was up around 2am last night and was stuffy and coughing. They came to get me and comfort me, but they didn't seem all that happy about it. Hopefully, I'll start feeling better soon.

Back west

Yesterday, I flew back to California with my Mommy. I was impressed that I am now more mobile than she is. She had to go everywhere in a wheelchair whereas I got to crawl along beside her (okay, it's not quite true, she carried me, but I COULD have crawled, I really could have). I hate being stuck in my carseat all that time on the plane. After the first leg of the flight, I let Mommy know I was tired of the carseat. I tried to tell her, but when that didn't work, I stiffened my body like a board and made it close to impossible for her to strap me in. I see other people walking up and down the aisles, and the arms of the seats look good to pull myself up on. I don't see why I can't wander around too. Grrr. I hate that there seems to be a different set of rules for me.

My Daddy was there to pick us up at the airport. He greabbed me and popped me into the carseat for the ride home. Boy, don't these people get the idea that I'm SICK of being in a carseat. At least this time the carseat was in a car instead of a plane. We drove home and I got reacquainted with all my toys. Later in the evening, daddy played a new game with me. As I was crawling around on the floor, he would nudge my side with his head, thereby flipping me over. I absolutely LOVE this game. I lauged and laughed.

Than I got tired and went to bed. It was a little before 10pm. It sure gets late early out west.

Tiptoes

When I'm outside in the backyard, I like to crawl over from the grass to the patio area. The patio is a neat, hard surface, very different from the grass. It's also where there are lots of good places to pull myself up. Anyway, I've discovered that crawling on my knees on the hard patio surface is no fun at all, so I've come up with a solution. When I'm on grass, I crwal as normal; however, when I come to the patio, I arch my whole body up so that I'm "crawling" on the tips of my fingers and the tips of my toes only. While this method is slower than the usual way, it does get me to my destination without as much discomfort as the usual crawling method. I love to innovate!

Last night I had a bath. I really love baths. I love to splash. I love the feeling of the warm water. I love to chase around my rubber ducky. Mommy set me in the bathroom in preparation for bathing and I immediately made a beeline for the tub. I then pulled myself up on the tub and was all set to dive in (I was planning a swan dive.) I was annoyed when Daddy prevented me from doing my graceful dive. Soon though, I was enjoying splashing about in the tub while Mommy and Daddy cleaned off the accumulated stuff from living the active baby life. This was great, and I wished it would never end. But then they took me out and started to towel me off. Perhaps they didn't hear me---I said I wished it would never end. Then Mommy started rubbing lotion all over me. I tried to jump up and signal to them that I was not finished having my bath. I DID NOT WANT IT TO END. Then Mommy started putting a new diaper on me. Why do they not get the message???? I'm not DONE with my bath. I do not WANT it to end. They are not listening to me.

I was very frustrated.

Day with Daddy

Another weekend day with Daddy. It's getting predictable now. We spend lots of time outside and in between we watch spoting events. Today's menu was the baseball playoffs. Frankly, I don't know how Daddy can watch so much of this. I fell asleep midway through the Yankees-Angels game. Daddy let me try a couple of new things. He gave me a sippy cup filled wit water. It was kind of neat drinking things other than formula---and drinking in new ways. He also gave me a bunch of Cheerios to try. The Cheerios were fun to play with, but I don't get the appeal of eating them.

Happy Birthday Mommy

Yesterday was my Mommy's birthday. She is 408 months old! To celebrate, we went out to one of her favoriate restaurants, Il Fornaio. While I was quite happy when we first got there, I got tired as the evening progressed and found it hard to get comfortable in my stroller. By the main course, I was pretty sick of being there. Eventually, Daddy had to take me for a walk in the stroller to improvemy spirits. Despite the fact that she had just turned 408 months old, Mommy did not seem to be having a real great time. Maybe she was tired too.

I got Mommy a card that had the characters from one of my favorite books on it. It said, "Guess How Much I Love You" on the front and then wished her a happy birthday inside. Birth being one of the biggest events in my life, I can see how it's important to celebrate. I also got Mommy a decorative photo album that I filled with all my favoriate pictures of me. That way, Mommy can quickly show everyone how cute I am---even when I'm not around to show them myself. Mommy seemed to really like this gift.

Movie Night

Last night I went to my first movie in a real movie theater! Now, mostly people don't like to watch movies with little guys like me. They don't seem to appreciate the incisive commentary I bring to a film. For instance, after last night's film, The Good Girl, got started, I felt that it was appropriate to comment on Jennifer Aniston's acting performance. My take: "ba-ba-ba-ba-eeeeeeep." Anyway, in this movie theater everyone appreciated my comments. That's because on Monday nights, this particular theater runs "baby night." The theater is filled with babies and their parents. MY Mommy heard about this from another Mommy in my Music and Movement class and decided to give it a shot.

Anyway, it was quite interesting to look around at the lights and the other babies. In fact, it was so interesting that I was not at all interested in eating. I hate it when I get so wrapped up in things that I forget to eat though. It makes me grouchy and irritable later in the evening.