Fears of the Cosmos

I think toddler fears are pretty normal, but it seems like Penny is "scared" of something new everyday, and by the next day she's on to something else. A lot of it has to do with her perception of the world, which is really interesting to me. She and I had driven to Montgomery in search of catfood for Mullet (don't ask) and on the way back we were going up a hill. The slope of the road made the horizon beyond the hill temporarily disappear and Penny got really upset that we were either going to drive right up into the sky, or that the sky was going "to get us." The other day, on the way to the grocery store, she put on her sunglasses and said she was doing so so that the sun couldn't get her.
This one isn't associated with a fear, but illustrative of her perception of the sky: At my mom's house one day a couple weeks ago we left after supper and the moon was already up. She asked if we could walk down the road to go see it (she likes the moon). I looked down the road, and the perspective did make it seem like if you walked down the road that the moon would be closer.
It's kind of interesting to see how she views things at this age.

Ma Ma

When Penny was learning to talk she called me ma-ma for all of a nanosecond before transitioning to mommy. It was probably a few months really, but it seems like it didn't last very long. Sometime over the last week she decided that it would be funny to go back to ma-ma though. Not all the time, but sometimes - and always with a mischevious laugh like it's just soooo funny. It's her joke of the week apparently.

miss independent

A short anecdote: this evening Penny was being extremely talkative, even more so than usual. I think she was just trying to keep talking to keep from having to take a bath. At some point, the conversation took a humorous turn. I forget what she said exactly to start with, but it was something to the effect that she couldn't (physically) get into the bathtub. I told her that I would help her. She looked at me and said, "I will get in there when I want to." The way she said it, she really didn't mean anything by it. She was actually trying to explain that she could get in the tub by herself, but out of context it sounds so teenager talk-back. I cracked up.

2 year well visit

I finally got Penny in for her 2 year well visit yesterday - two months late. Actually, at her 18 month visit our pediatrician said that it was fine to wait a couple months until on into the fall so that she could have her flu shot and not have to come in twice. But, mostly we were late going because of moving and then finding a new doctor and having her records requested and then sent and then the first appointment I could get was several weeks away, and etc. So. Yesterday.

She's doing great. Still 6th percentile on weight - 25th on height. Even though she wasn't due for any shots other than the flu shot, she got a prevnar booster. Apparently a new one came out that covers more strains so she got it. And it made her sick. She was irritable last night. We could not get her to take a bath, or really agree to much of anything. And then, of course, today she woke up with a fever. She did not want me to leave this morning. It was heartwrenching because she was begging me to stay and crying and she was so pitiful because she didn't feel good. Poor baby girl. I can't wait to get home this afternoon to give her a big old hug.

I did ask about the jumping thing, and the doctor said that the majority of kids do it by 2 1/2 (30 months), so she's still got a few months. But even if she doesn't jump by then, as long as she's doing everything else ok then it's not a big deal. For example, she can kick a ball by bending her leg at the knee which is supposedly a harder concept than jumping, so it's probably not developmental. Maybe she just doesn't like how it feels?

Work

I've been wanting to post to the blog more often, but I am crazy busy with work. Also, my camera died so no photos to post either. Right now I am at work in my office for office hours. I'm supposed to be writing lectures, but I am fighting burnout so I am going to write this instead.

I really like teaching, but it is so much work. It's not a 9 to 5 job. I teach 4 classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Two of them are the same so I have 3 different classes. Each class meets 1 hour and 15 minutes. This means that I am writing six different 1 hour and 15 minute long speeches every week - coming from someone who struggled to write a 20 minute speech in college if required for a class. I'd spend a week or more working on that 20 minute speech, practicing it over and over again to get it just right and usually would end up talking too fast or forgetting parts and wind up with a much too short speech. Now, I have to fill up five hours of talking time twice a week - ten hours total. I write most every night after Penny goes to sleep. I write during her naps. I write during my office hours on Monday and Wednesday. Sometimes I write my lectures right before class over my lunch break (and sometimes it shows). I also am teaching an online class that adds to the workload.

Add to that that we moved in to our new house the day before the first day of classes. All of the myriad things that need doing day to day in an established household are challenging for me under normal circumstances. Housework, plus unpacking and painting and etc, etc. It's overwhelming sometimes.

Tray is wonderful though and I am so glad that we have each other to get through the craziness. He's really great about helping me to step back and just enjoy things too because I definitely have a tendency to stay wrapped up like a stress ball.

And teaching really is worth it. The grades on all my first tests were not that great, which was disappointing (and much lower than the grades I used to get teaching at FSU). But, students are starting to come out of their shells and ask questions and stay after class to talk about things. With excitement in their voices! In my 230 class yesterday, students actually engaged in discussion about structural adjustment programs in South America. With each other. During class. I was like, yes! This is what college should be like. There are definitely a lot of challenges, but also glimmers of good stuff.

I am so grateful for the job and the opportunity especially in today's economy. And hopefully things will get a little easier as they go on.

Now, back to writing lectures. And writing a presentation for a conference in November. It only has to be 15 minutes. Should be a piece of cake. :)

Diapers

I boxed up P's diapers this weekend. She's only been wearing one at night for awhile now, but I was reluctant to put her in underwear overnight. I don't know why - she was overnight potty trained long before she was daytime potty trained. It's been months since she pee-peed at night, long before we moved. I guess I was just worried about what would happen if there was an accident, that it might set her back during the day. I finally just decided that it at this point if she does go potty at night that it will be just that - an accident. So, no more diapers. Three days now, all underwear all the time. Yay, Penny!

Duck Center update

We went to the rec center for gymnastics this evening. Penny was ... watchful. She didn't really do much but hang out and watch other people. But that was really kind of cool because she would watch somebody for a long time, and then do whatever it was they were doing. They had some of the older girls rolling down a small incline, and Penny decided this would be fun, so now she is rolling all over the place. Also our instructor, Miss Hannah, was showing some of the older girls how to do different types of jumps down the long trampoline. Penny was enthralled. She stood in the ball pit bouncer thing and watched Hannah intently. Then she started bouncing! She still never quite got off the ground, and looked pretty awkward, but she was trying SO hard. I could tell that she really wanted to do whatever Miss Hannah was saying. I have to admit, it is a little hard for me to watch her try so hard to do something that seems to come so naturally to all the other kids, but at the same time I felt a lot of pride watching her put so much effort into it. I just know she's going to figure it out soon!

Duck Center

So, Penny's gymnastics "classes" continue on Thursday nights. We missed the week before last b/c it was the day after she dislocated her elbow again, but we went last week. She learned how to roll head first on the mat (with help). She won't do it from a standing position, but if she kneels down she will do it. She even attempted to bounce on the trampoline. I don't think she actually got any "air" but she did bend her knees and sort of moved in a bounce-ish manner. Not sure what that's about, but we never got her to bounce in her doorway bouncer when she was a baby either. Well, I think she did eventually do it, but mostly she just hung there and spun around. :)
The classes are held at the recreation center, which I call the rec center for short. Penny calls it the "duck center" because I guess that's what it sounds like to her when I say it. They have a large salt-water fish aquarium there that she loves and will ask multiple times a week to go see the fish at the duck center. I am tempted to get an aquarium for our house, except that we need another mouth to feed like a hole in the head.
They also have an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, and a sprayyard. I took her swimming last week and we had fun. She mostly wanted to hang out on the wheelchair ramp part where it was shallow enough for her to walk up and down in the water. I did take her to the shallow end where I could stand up and she "jumped" in for me to catch her (I held onto her from a seated position on the edge). I also turned her on her stomach and she sort of doggie paddled naturally. I didn't have her any arm floaty things, but I think I might get her some so she can move independently of me. I thought we could get by without them, but without them I can't let go of her at all and that turned out to be no fun for either of us. My friend Kelly visited Australia last summer and taught over the summer. Her oldest daughter took swimming lessons. If you don't know, swimming is HUGE in Australia as a sport and she said that little kids like little, little kids were swimming in the lanes freestyle. None of the mommy and me stuff - full on swimming. I wonder how old Penny will be before she can really swim like that - 3? 4? I think I started lessons at 3, but I'm not sure when I actually started really swimming. Anyway. It's a fun place, the duck center.

Let me ask mommy a question

Penny is very humorous in announcing her intent to do something before she does it. (And then sometimes recapping the event after it just occurred.) Today we had a dead pine tree cut down and the guy who did it also brought us a load of mulch for our yard. This evening Penny was "raking" the mulch with her Penny-sized rake when she suddenly dropped it saying to herself, "I am going to go ask Mommy a question." I bent down low as she ran over, curious to know what she might ask me. She pointed to the pile of mulch in the garden and asked, "Do you see that mulch right there Mommy?" "Yes," I replied expectantly. "The man brought it in the yellow tractor." It was kind of anticlimactic, but then I realized, wasn't it just like yesterday that she was learning to talk? And now she's telling me about stuff?

Also, one funny thing Penny does is to say "dude" when trying to ask "what did he do". Instead, she'll say, "what he dude?" (I'm spelling it "dude" so you'll know how she's saying it - doed just didn't look right). I do that thing where I parrot her statement back to correct her without correcting her and it usually results in the next time she says it being, "what he did?" Close enough. Anyway, I just love the conjugation of the verb did into dude.

Miss Priss

Penny can be so prim and proper sometimes. Yesterday, I sliced some mozzarella cheese for myself. She asked for some cheese so I sliced her a couple pieces. I put them on a napkin for her on the table. She looked at it and said, "I'm sorry. I want yellow cheese." (meaning cheddar) like she was sorry for creating a misunderstanding or something. I had to stifle a giggle at that one.

Cold

I have a cold and I feel blah. Wonder if I caught it in the ER with Penny or from one of my students? Or some mashup of germs from both? Well, anyway, at least it held off until after my birthday this year. Thanks to my mom for coming over to help with P while Tray is out of town so I could take a nap (or two).

On a totally unrelated note, I would like to point out that Penny has stacked a tower of legos at least ten pieces high on the top of which a lego horse is currently balanced precariously on one foot. Physics, Penny.

Elbow Redux

So I didn't take this picture for purposes of my blog. I was trying to convince Penny that her sling was something super-cool, so super-cool, in fact, that it warranted me taking her picture. This is her late last night after getting back from the hospital before we ate an extremely late supper. She dislocated her elbow again - doing much of nothing, again. The doctor popped it back in, but there was no relief and after some wait time they did an x-ray. 9 times out of 10 it pops back in during the x-ray process since the technician has to move it into different positions to get different views. Six different views as it turns out. X-rays on a two year old's dislocated arm = not fun. For anyone.

Anyway, it did not pop in - or maybe it did, but it didn't take. After another long wait period, the doctor popped it in a second time, but she was still unable to move it. Although they were not great at communicating this with us last night, I have since read online that after that standard procedure has been followed and it still isn't functioning then you go to an orthopedist because the ligament is likely torn. Which would mean she would have had to wear a splint on her arm for a week and a half or so. It being, by then, the middle of the night, the ER sent us home with P in the above sling and the information for the orthopedist we were to call this morning.

We did not attempt to give her a bath or anything before bed last night. She was super tired by the time we got home and actually we ended up just letting her sleep in the shirt she had on rather than attempting to take it off. (Well, I figured I could get it off, but I wasn't sure if I could get another one on.) It was a long night. It was so sad as she was going to sleep. We took the sling off before bed, but she still couldn't move her arm. She wanted to hold Mr. Bear, but couldn't move her arm. She asked me to put him under her arm for her, but I didn't want to hurt her, so I told her I would just lay him on her tummy. She fell asleep relatively easily (thankfully), but it was a fitful sleep. She would cry out in her sleep. She woke up at 4 a.m. and was still in pain, but I got her back to sleep. At some point thereafter though she must have moved in such a way that it popped back in fully because when she woke up at 7 it was fine. She waved it at me and Tray and said, "My arm's all better!" In a tone of voice like, "huh. look at that."

Tray and I were so, so grateful for that turn of events. She's been totally fine all day, but Tray and I are completely gun shy with her. Which is funny because she really didn't do anything out of the ordinary the two times that it has happened now. It still doesn't hurt to be careful with her though. Man, what a night. I am so glad she's better. And I really hope that it won't happen again, but I know now that the possibility is pretty strong.