Games

Diana sat down with me at the table for some Twilight Struggle the other night.  It's a pretty overwhelming game to look at for a newb, but (as you know) once you get the hang of it, there's not too much you need to remember.  I explained the rules and we got through a couple turns before it started getting too late.  I hope we can give it another shot at some point.  She seemed interested, but I think is mostly put off by the length of time required to play.

I bought Allison "Fairies Rule, Goblins Drool" for Christmas.  It's a silly little game built around one mechanic, but she likes it, and it's not totally dumb.

I also brought out Bohnanza! and played with Diana and Allison together.  The box says ages 13+ on it, but I figured Allison could figure it out.  Turns out I was right!  We played with our hands face up on the table, and played through the entire deck once.  Allison picked up the rules quickly and easily.  It was super cute when she would say in mock anguish "Ugh, no one wants my Blue Beans!" or whatever.  We didn't play a very cutthroat game... there was lots of donating and friendly trading, but everyone had a good time.  That's a fun little game.

One month...

Well, we’re a little over one month in to the whole “second child” thing, and it’s going ok.  I think Diana and I would both agree that it has been and is easier than we anticipated. 

When we left the hospital, the main concern was making sure that Samantha was eating enough and gaining weight.  She has gained well over the average weight per week of her life, so that is no longer a concern.  Diana has had a number of breastfeeding issues (overproduction, fast let-down, clogged ducts, mastitis), which has made things challenging on her end, for sure.  Mastitis, particularly, leads to antibiotics, which then affects Samantha’s digestion, etc.  So it’s been a little bit of a mess, but I think we (really mostly Diana) have risen and overcome the challenges as they’ve presented themselves.

Sam had her one-month doctor’s appointment today.  They verified that she’s tracking objects with her eyes, reacts to light, etc.  Upon further discussion, the doctor agreed with our suspicion that she has a certain amount of reflux, and prescribed some medicine for that.  Samantha is a very loud sleeper, always growling and hiccupping and very restless, so we’re hoping that will be relieved with some anti-reflux medicine.

In general, though, she sleeps well, eats well, and is doing fine.  She’s 90th percentile in both weight and height.  Her doctor seemed happy about that.  In spite of her initial slow start and sleepiness, and now reflux, she certainly isn’t having any problems growing.

Allison is getting over a cold and an ineffective run of antibiotics.  She missed a day of school, but is on the mend now.  She continues to dominate kindergarten, and it’s crazy to think that the school year is almost over.  It goes so fast.

Diana is surviving, still getting up in the middle of the night to nurse and help Samantha.  She really has been super-mom in that regard, facing the challenges of a newborn without complaint.  Our house is being invaded by ants, and there’s clutter and the washing machine broke, so that’s driving her a little crazy, but between you and me, if those are the worst problems we’re having, I think we’re doing pretty ok.

The Ballad of Samantha Jane, cont'd

Today is Samantha's one week birthday.

We came home on Friday, and did our best to figure out how the dynamics were going to work.  It was great to see and live with Allison again.  She visited us once in the hospital, but didn't want to come back after that.  I don't blame her, it's an uncomfortable environment.  But it was great to see her again.

The first night wasn't too bad, but just difficult.  We were feeding everything three hours.  That doesn't sound so bad, but when you take into account that a feeding would take an hour or more, that's not a whole lot of sleep.  But we made it through OK (my memory is a little foggy, obviously).

The next morning, we were figuring out what we were going to do for the day, and a friend called and offered to take Allison to Balboa Park.  Allison was pumped on that idea, and we thought it was just perfect.  So while Allison was gone, we had a leisurely day of settling in.  Just having that time was a really nice gift that came at the perfect time.

Samantha still was a groggy baby.  She rarely opened her eyes, but was eating regularly.  Without a whole lot to do, we just let her sleep and woke her up every so often to eat.

Diana, though all this, has been a trooper.  She's a better patient than I could ever be.  She's been in a certain amount of discomfort, but has been certainly able to get up and around, take a shower, go to the bathroom, walk around the house.  She's not speedy, but she's healing well.  Aside from her incision, she has a nice rash on her stomach, which we suspect is an allergic reaction to the cleaning solution from the surgery.  She takes her pain medicine as needed, and is really just doing better than I would have hoped.

Allison has been just wonderful through the weekend.  With Diana in the captain's chair for the baby, it really falls on me to keep Allison satisfied.  No complaints here.  We headed to Legoland on Sunday and had a good time cruising around.  In general, though, Allison has really better than I would have expected.  She is used to a certain level of attention, but has been patient and understanding that we can no longer always be at her beck and call.  And when Diana was in pain or feeling a little emotional, she's very compassionate, offering helpful suggestions or just a little snuggling.

Monday was the first day of school after spring break.  We had a quiet morning, but the day goes quickly, and I picked her up, then to the library for homework and books, then to gym class, then home where I got some dinner on the table (Diana had already made it, bless her), bath time, etc.  It's kind of a whirlwind time of the day, as I'm sure it is in any family.

Part of yesterday morning was Samantha's first doctors appointment.  We were very curious to hear how her weight was going.  She weighed in at 7 lbs, 4 oz.  I think we were both hoping for a little more weight gain, but she's on a definite upward trajectory.

Today is one week.  We had some nice family time in the morning, and little Sam actually had an hour of good awake time after feeding.  Eyes open and looking around, and even some tummy time on a beautiful custom quilt from Yaya Carole.  That was really encouraging.  I will feel better when she gets into a little more of a wake/sleep rhythm, instead of sleeping all the time.  Again, remind of this when I'm trying to get her to stop wailing in the middle of the night.

Speaking of the middle of the night, I've pretty much been removed from active service.  Diana doesn't need my help anymore, and I've been sleeping alone in bed while she sleeps on the couch and takes care of the feedings.  I do keep my phone by my bed, though, and she says she'll call me if she needs any help.  I feel a little guilty, but she assures me is doing just fine.

I did hear a little commotion last night.  Samantha was crying, and Allison woke up and was crying because she was awake too.  This was all at around 2:30am.  I was about to get up and see if I could be helpful, but everything quieted down.  But we're going to encourage Allison to sleep with her door closed, I guess.

There also was some carpet cleaner out on the counter this morning.  Apparently there was a true poop fountain as Diana was changing her in the middle of the night.  That sounded pretty exciting.  Glad I wasn't around for that one.

At the moment, Allison is at school, and Diana is nursing.  I really don't think there is a more peaceful, serene, beautiful sight than a mom and a baby all wrapped up and making happy little nursing sounds.  Just wonderful.

The Ballad of Samantha Jane

On Tuesday, April 9th, Samantha Jane S. was born into the world.

Unlike her older sister, Samantha was born via C-section.  I won't go into details, but just say that it was a decision made with the support of Diana's doctor.  As a result of this, the birth experience was quite different than previously.

For one thing, there was no labor.  The birth was scheduled a week before the due date, and while Diana had a few cramps and false labor pains, there was no "this is it" kind of moment.  No water breaking, no frantic drive to the hospital.  Just an 8am appointment.

We showed up and got checked in and waited.  And waited.  Hospitals in general make me a little anxious, and of course major happenings like this even more so.  So I was already feeling a little woozy, but trying to keep hydrated and get some food into my stomach.  Diana was on a bed, all gowned up, and we just kind of waited.

Around 11am, we were told that it was go-time.  Diana got wheeled back to the operating room, and I put on my haz-mat suit over my clothes, and waited some more.  After about twenty minutes, I was called back. I found my way to the head-side of the table.  I could see Diana's head, and her arms straight out to her side, and a big curtain in front of me.  The surgery didn't last too long.  Maybe half-an-hour total?  I just tried to talk to Diana and reassure her.  She was great, and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out or anything.  I was pretty surprised by the amount of tugging and pulling.  I could feel the table moving a little, or at least feel Diana's body being pulled in various directions.  It was pretty intense.  She felt a lot of various pressure and stuff, but no pain.

Then, the kid was born.  Her birthweight was 7 pounds and 11 ounces, and she measured around 19 inches long.  Her official time of birth was 11:43am.  There were many comments about how big she was.  She was brought to a small side table, and I was invited over to check her out while the pediatric team checked her out.  My first impressions were how purple she was, and how floppy she seemed to be.  Granted it's been a long time since I've been around a newborn, but it kind of shocked me.  They spent a good bit of time suctioning all the fluid out of her, and she turned from blue to pink quick enough.  I think they may have used a little oxygen gas-mask briefly.

At this point, I started feeling a little faint.  I headed back to Diana and reported the news to her.  I kind of broke out in a sweat, and decided it might be a good time to take a quick break.  I went outside, and sat down and was given some juice, which helped.  In just a minute or two I headed back inside, and was able to my my new daughter for the first time, and show her to Diana.  Diana was pretty ok during the surgery, but got kind of shaky/shivery at the end.  Once everything was over, they transferred her over to a rolling bed, and we went back to the waiting room for two hours of observation and making sure nothing bad happened.  Diana was able to try to nurse for the first time.

Eventually, we were transferred upstairs to the recovery room.  It was a quiet day, and we got a private room, which was nice.  I can't imagine sharing a room with another new family.  The day was a blur of various doctors and nurses coming and checking on Diana and Samantha, taking vitals, etc.  We tried to nurse, but Samantha was so sleepy all the time, if was difficult.  They weighed her Tuesday night, and she had lost a little weight, which is normal.

Wednesday was more of the same.  Just trying to rest, get checked out by doctors, and feed the kid.  Again, she was super sleepy all the time, and it was really hard to know how much she was eating.  At her Wednesday midnight official weigh-in, she was down to 6 pounds, 14 ounces, and had lost about 10% of her body weight.  This was official Cause for Concern, and a Plan was put into place.  After Diana would nurse, she was then pump extra milk.  During the next feeding, we used a small tube on a syringe and stuck that into her mouth, right alongside the nipple, and injected extra milk in there.

That plans strikes me as a good one for two reasons.  First, it obviously got extra food into the kid.  Second, it helped Diana get her milk going.  Soon enough, it was apparent that Diana's supply was not an issue.  She was pumping more and more milk each session.  The bigger deal was that Samantha was just so sleepy all the time.  It really took us 10 or 15 minutes of poking and prodding and wet towels and blowing to get her awake enough to eat.

At mid-morning, the pediatricians came by, and expressed some official concern at her sleepiness.  Until this point in time, it was just "oh, she'll probably come around after a day", but now they decided it was time to start "doing a few things".  I asked, and they wanted to do some blood tests to rule out possible infections or metabolic problems, as well as an ultrasound on her brain to check for bleeding.

Dude.

We agreed to all the tests, as they were non-invasive and seemed harmless enough, and would give us a much better picture if anything was going on.  It turns out that (the ped. said) 40% of babies born have some bleeding in their brain, which they don't normally test for and normally resolves on its own.  So they took some blood from her heel, and we waited for the ultrasound room to be ready.

The blood test came back in two parts.  The first part was done very quickly, and everything was normal.  She was slightly dehydrated, but otherwise things were good.  A while later, I went downstairs with her to have her tiny little head ultra-sounded.  I sat in a corner while the ultrasound guy took a bunch of cross section images and measurements (of tumors and aneurysms, I was sure), while a nurse-tech kept Samantha calm (not too hard).

I was pretty anxious seeing my newborn daughters brain being scanned, but I'll never forget how it ended.  The ultrasound tech turned to the nurse and said simply:  "Unremarkable."  He then excused himself to the back room, and came back a minute later and said that "they concur".  I made some crack about "Did you just call my daughter unremarkable?!" with mock indignation.  We headed upstairs, and I texted Diana the results.  At the same time, she texted back that the extended bloodwork (CBC) came back all normal.  So, everything was good, we just apparently have a super-calm, super sleepy baby, and we'll just see how things develop.

That as Thursday afternoon/evening, and given all of the above, it was a pretty roller-coaster day, emotionally.  We continued with our feeding Plan, and it was determined that if that went well and she starting gaining weight, we would probably go home tomorrow.  And the midnight weighing showed that she had gained back a few ounces of weight.  More good news.

As my dad put it, we probably just spent six or eight thousand dollar to find out we have a perfectly healthy baby.

Today, Friday, was release day.  We got all our stuff together and met with a couple of lactation consultants.  It appears there are two big issues at hand.  The first is our sleepy baby.  We really need to work hard to wake her enough to eat.  I do think, though, that she is coming around on her own.  I could come up with all sorts of theories about slightly premature babies, or C-section babies not being ready to be born yet, and being slower to wake up.  Who knows.

The second issue is that Diana's breasts are absolutely enormous when filled with milk.  There's simply no delicate way to put it.  As a result, it's hard for little Samantha to latch on.  It's like trying to take a bite out of a whole watermelon.

So, our current plan for each feeding is that I take Samantha and shake her around a bit and try to get her eyes open and awake.  At the same time, Diana is pumping so that her boobs deflate a bit.  This takes a little while, and there are usually some false starts, but eventually works.  It a good bit of effort, though.  We have an appointment on Monday, and it will be interesting to see how her weight is when we go there.

We came home in the afternoon, and had some time to ourselves before the grandparents brought Allison home from art camp.  I'll talk more about their budding relationship in another post, but it was great to see her again after so long.  She came to visit us in the hospital on Tuesday, but wasn't interested in coming down again after that.

I'm pretty calm and think things are going well, but I'll be a little happier when our baby is a little more awake.  It makes me a little nervous that she's so quiet and sleepy all the time.  I'm probably crazy for saying that, but it's true.

Gotta run.  More later.  I just wanted to get some details out while I remembered.

The Calm...

Well, this is it.  The bags are packed, and plan is in motion.  Tomorrow is the big day.

I just spent some time reading some of the posts from this blog after Allison was born, and let's just say I was overcome with emotion.

I'm not anxious, but I just want everything to go well and for everyone to be healthy.  Nothing to do but wait.

Fingers crossed!

Chapter 2

Hello blog…

Long time no see.  Sorry about that.  I see that I’ve only posted a few times in the past month?!  That’s unfortunate.

As it happens, quite a bit has happened in those past months.  Allison is officially rocking kindergarten.  She’s had a couple official parent/teacher reviews and gets good marks on all aspects.  Her self-confidence has really increased.  Where in the past she may have stood quietly and let others go before her, now she runs to be the first in line.  She actually got in trouble at school for the first time (had to “pull her tag”), and was appropriately guilty and upset about that.  We’re really lucky to have such a great kid.

She’s in a phase now where she has a difficult time accepting no for an answer.  She’ll ask to watch TV, or have a treat, or generally do something, and if we say “no”, she wants to know why.  Always why.  And sometimes we don’t have a good answer for “why not”.  Why shouldn’t we let her watch TV at that moment?  It’s hard to explain that too much TV in the long run isn’t good for little bodies.  But she doesn’t have a concept of the long run.  That’s the latest challenge.  It’s not a big deal, but it’s something.  She just got a small load of Easter candy (after a really fun and successful treasure hunt at my parents house!), and she was constantly asking if she could have some of her candy.  We finally realized that the reason she asks “why” all the time was that we weren’t giving consistent answers.  Sometimes she can watch TV, and sometimes now.  Sometimes she can have candy, and sometimes now.  We finally had the bright idea to portion out her candy into separate baggies, and she could have one baggie per day, whenever she wanted.  So now it’s very clear when she can have a treat and when she can’t, and she can answer her own question.

In other news, Diana is knocked up and ready to burst.  The official due date is 4/16, but we’re going in on 4/9 for a scheduled c-section.  The ultrasounds seem to indicate a pretty big baby, combined with some complications during Allison’s birth, a c-section seemed like a prudent choice.  So it will be interesting to compare this birth experience with the last one.

Diana is doing well.  Aside from some acid reflux, some sciatica, and generally being uncomfortable heaving a big belly around, I don’t get the feeling that this pregnancy has been particularly challenging.  It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster, though.  Early on, there was some suspicion that Diana had gestational diabetes, and was ordered to monitor her blood sugar.  She did that for two weeks, and it was always well within range, so she was told she didn’t need to anymore.  Then there was a possible issue with the umbilical cord perhaps not being centered on the placenta, and we’d have to watch and make sure the baby is growing well, which she has.  The latest is that her proportions are a little uneven.  Short arms/legs and big belly/head, but we’re told that’s not something to worry about.  I’ve been sick with the flu and norovirus stomach flu in the past few months, and thankfully Diana avoided both of those.  I don’t know how, but she did.

For my own part, I’m about as ready as I can be, emotionally, for this next chapter.  I’m clearing up tasks at work and steeling myself as best I can for the upcoming arrival.  I fully realize I’ll never be totally prepared for what’s to come, but I feel like I’m in as good a spot as I could reasonably expect.

What I don’t know how I’ll do is love this new little one as much as I love Allison.  I swear I’d do anything for that kid.  Her nightly routine now is to write love letters to us at bedtime (after we leave her room).  She writes one to me, one to Diana, and one to both of us.  They are just adorable.  My friends with multiple kids assure me it’s possible, but I can’t comprehend that yet.  How do I have room in my heart?

It will also be interesting to see what a five and a half year difference is like.  There are certainly pros and cons, I expect, about having kids close and far in age.  Allison has never been particularly independent.  She rarely disappears for any length of time and plays by herself.  So I suspect and immediately challenge will be dealing with parents who are increasingly busy and having our hands full.  On the other hand, she potentially could be very helpful and sweet, too.  So we’ll see how that works out.

Cross your fingers for us!

Gaming with the Kid

I’ve played two sessions of Catan Junior so far.  The first was a two player game with just Allison, and then a pair of two-player games with Allison on my team, and then Diana’s team.

The game is simple enough.  You basically roll the dice to collect resources, and use the resources to build new towers.  You can also trade resources at the market (one for one, but your item might not be available), or the supply (two for one for any item).  Finally, there is the Ghost Captain, which you can move around if you roll a six.

When we played the first time, Allison was having fun until she realized she was probably going to lose.  Then she wanted to stop playing.  I encouraged her to play, and she indeed did lose and got really upset.  She said she hated the game and wanted to throw it in the trash, which was hilarious and sad at the same time.  :)

Later, when we were driving, I talked to her about the game, and winning and losing.  She said it wasn’t fair, because I’d played the game “a million times before”, and she was just a kid and it was her first time playing.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was my first time too, but I told her that it’s ok to lose and that the fun part is playing, not really who wins or loses.  I tried to say it was a “practice game” and that it didn’t matter.

Anyways, the next night we played again, where Allison was on Diana’s team.  They won.  Then she was on my team, and we won.  Although one of the games was close, and she decided she wanted to defect to the winning team.  At the end of the second game, she wanted to play again and be on her own team, but we saved that for next time.

I think it was good for her to be on a team, and see how Diana and I reacted (or didn’t) when we lost.  We also have some co-op games on the way (where everyone wins or loses together), which should help as well.

This started off as an email to Eryn, but I figure this would make a good blog post, so here it is.

Transgressions

Allison and I were playing on the ground with some little sofa throw pillows nearby.

“Look!” she said.  “This pillow is getting kind of old.”

She pointed out a small hole in the pillowcase.  A small, neatly cut hole with clearly defined edges.

“Allison…  did you cut this hole with your scissors?”

She looked at me with pure guilt writ large across her face.  She didn’t say anything, but her wheels were spinning furiously.

“Allison, it’s important that you tell me the truth.  Did you cut these holes?”

Almost inaudibly, she admitted she did.

At that moment, I didn’t really know what to do.  If I got pissed for her cutting the pillow, I’d fear that she’ll learn that lying is a viable strategy for getting away with stuff.  But I also don’t want her to go around cutting up everything without any ramification.

In the end, I thanked her for her honesty, and I told her that those pillows belonged to me, and I didn’t want her to do that again.  Who knows if that was the right response.

But what I do know is that in the long run, I care much more about her trusting me than I care about the pillows.

Allison is Five!

So, the kid is five years old today.

She’s been looking forward to her birthday (and presents!) for a long time now, asking almost every day how many days her birthday would be in.

She woke up early this morning and Diana made her chocolate chip pancakes.  We got all ready for school, and I dropped her off with a bag of little toys and pencils that she can distribute as little prizes for her classmates.

I guess I haven’t written about kindergarten yet!  The long and short of it is that it’s going really well.  She is always excited to go and excited to be there, and there hasn’t been a single tear or extra hug or anything needed at dropoff.  It’s been great, and the school really seems like it has its act together.  There is a very strong community of parent involvement, with multiple parent helpers in the class every day (already booked out for the year).  Diana works in the morning, but has had the opportunity to volunteer for an afternoon or two, which was nice.

Allison has made a few friends already (Ella, Qunicy, and Layse (“lay-EESE”)).  I think she spends recess looking for bugs or chasing boys, which is funny to me.

Academically, I don’t think she’s particularly challenged at the moment, as they are reviewing individual letters and sounds, but it’s always good to establish a baseline and move forward from there.  I’m not worried that she’ll be bored or anything.

So, in general, that’s all going really well.  I drop her off every morning, and Diana picks her up in the afternoons and takes her to the pool or finds something fun to do.  I didn’t really relish the morning routine every morning, but it’s been working out pretty well.

Allison is tall and lean still.  At her fifth year doctor’s appointment, the doctor noted that she’s been 95th percentile in height and 75th in weight at every appointment.  She’s directly on the same curve each time, which is unusual.  My mom measured her today, and she’s 3 inches taller than a year ago, and two inches taller than I was at her age.  I’m kind of hoping that she slows down growing a bit and lets the other kids catch up!  She’s one of the youngest kids in her class, in some cases by a full year, but also one of the tallest.

She still wears an eyepatch for two hours every day and glasses for the rest.  Her latest eye appointment showed improvement in her left eye (from 20/25 (-1) to 20/25 (+2)), but still a discrepancy, so still patching.  But it’s not a struggle at all (especially since we moved from stickers to a cloth patch that fits on her glasses!), and I’m glad it’s not a more serious problem.

Allison loves drawing, and her art has improved considerably.  She mostly draw’s people, but the level of detail has expanded quite a bit (with eyelashes and fingers and belly buttons, teeth, etc).  Her absolute favorite toys are her “squishies”, which are little rubber stretch bugs/animals/fish/sea creatures/robots.  She has probably around 70 of them and is always arranging them and using them to tell little stories.

So everything is good.  She’s a great kid and we love her every day.

Apart from Allison, life is going well.  Diana is back to school and busy working.  I haven’t worked on any new games, but have gained some success with Hidden in Plain Sight (which came out almost a year ago).  It’s been nominated as a finalist in a pretty big indie games festival (IndieCade), so that’s pretty cool.  I’ll be going up to LA in a few weeks to be a part of that.  Otherwise, just playing games and doing my thing.

First day of Kindergarten!

It’s a big day!  Due to zoning, Allison was assigned to elementary school A.  However, we live in a district where you can choose and transfer between schools, so Diana decided to do some shopping around.  She felt pretty strongly that the next closest school B was better than A, and we applied for a transfer.  However, we didn’t find out the results of that transfer until last week, when we discovered that it was approved.  This is good news, as we’re really happy with school B.  However, it’s a little sketchy in that we have to re-apply for the transfer every year.  However, we’re assured that kids who are already enrolled get really high preference, and that it shouldn’t be a problem.

So, after pumping up the idea of kindergarten for a while, as well as having her in some daycamps to get her accustomed to being with new kids, today was the big day.  We drove over to the school and parked, and found her class.  We milled around outside with other parents and kids.  Some parents and kids knew each other from neighborhoods or preschools.  Soon the parents were ushered inside where we met Allison’s teacher.  She’s been teaching kindergarten for something like 20 or 25 years, and we’ve gotten the message from various sources that she was a good teacher.  She seemed like it.  She gave us a short introduction and overview while the kids played outside under the supervision of a yard monitor.

During the overview, I peeked outside to see what Allison was doing, and saw her sitting next to the playground watching.  Most kids were playing, but she and a few others were just kind of milling around.  It struck me as very Adam-like to kind of test the situation a bit before getting involved.

At some point, the kids started coming up to the windows, and she peeked inside and saw us and gave a big smile and a wave.  Then the kids were shooed away.

When it was time to say goodbye, we went outside with the other parents as the kids were coming back into the classroom.  There were some tears (her, not us), and some pleading for us to stay or to come to work with us.  This is not our first trip around the barn, though, and pretty easy for us to say “sorry kid, you’re on your own” and get away.  She waved to us and headed inside with the other kids.

I wondered if I was going to be emotional about it, but I really wasn’t.  I did (and do) feel generally anxious about it, though.  She, like me, is a look-before-you-leap kind of kid, and I imagine it will take some time before she makes friends and gets accustomed to the routine.  This is all to be expected, of course, but it doesn’t make it any easier to send your kid into a situation where they are nervous or scared.  In the end, I suppose, I’m probably more anxious than she is, and it will all be fine in the end.

Oh yeah.  Diana has a friend whose mom works at the school.  And apparently the mom went and peeked into Allison’s classroom, and reported (via her daughter, to Diana) that Allison “looked happy”.  So we’ve got our spy network in place!

I can’t wait to hear the report from Diana this afternoon.

Summer

We just got back from a series of summer vacations.  The first was too Kauai with Diana's family.  It was a great trip.  We stayed in a beautiful big house with a swimming pool, and enjoyed snorkeling in the morning and lounging in the afternoon.

Then we went to visit my brother in Maryland, which was also a lot of fun, but for other reasons.  Mostly, it was great getting Allison together with her cousin Julia and watching them play and be cute together.

Then a quick trip to Montana to hang out with my parents, which was beautiful.  Great weather and fun activities.  I even found some time to pull a few fish out of the river, which was great.

On one of the many plane flights, Diana was telling Allison about the clouds.  She said the looked puffy, like cotton or cotton candy, but actually they were made of water, kind of like steam.  Allison asked if Diana had ever touched a cloud, and Diana said "no", and Allison responded "Then how do you know?"

I thought this was brilliant.  Don't believe what they tell you, kid.  Question everything.

Speaking of brilliant (ha), Allison had her kindergarten assessment this morning.  I got a brief text from Diana that said that she passed with flying colors.  So, good for her.

She just finished a week of "Ooey Gooey Science Camp", which she really enjoyed (though it was hard to get any specific information out of her).  Next week she starts a Bug camp, which I think she'll also like a lot.

I Worry

I picked up Allison from school today.  She noticed me immediately, and ran down from the swings, and I could see her start crying on the way down.  She gave me a big hug and I held her tight and asked what happened.  When she calmed down a bit, she said that her friend was pushing the tire swing and it bonked her on the head.

Immediately I start to worry and wonder how hard she was hit.  Did she lose consciousness?  Her pupils look ok.  She's not bleeding from the ears.  She doesn't seem confused, but she's also upset.  During the car ride home, I quiz her, checking her memory, asking math and spelling problems.  She seems OK.  She remembers exactly what happened that led to the tire swing hitting her in the head, as well as events afterwards, and during the day beforehand.  When we get home, I let her play a math game on the iPad when we get home, and she gets them all right.

So, she seems fine.  I'm sure it was just a little bump that scared her more than anything.  Then I remember those horror stories of kids who seem fine, but then later in the evening get really tired, go to sleep with a headache, and wake up dead the next morning.  When Diana gets home, I tell her the situation and leave for basketball.  If she seems groggy or complains of a headache, get to the ER!  Everything appears totally normal, and I have no objective reason to worry.  But I worry.

After the game, I come home.  Allison is still awake. She hears the front door, and comes running down the hallway and greets me with a HUGE smile and BIG hug.  She's so sweet at bedtime, because I think she knows that if she's cute enough she can get away with things.  And it generally works (which makes me wonder why she doesn't employ this stratagem all the time).  I talk to her a bit.  She's awake and alert (having taken a nap today at school).  No headache.  I feel the worry melt away.  Mostly.

I hold her tight and tell her that I love her.  She kisses me on the nose and prances back to her room, singing to herself.

UPDATE:

Upon re-reading this, it makes me sound a little crazy.  I don't always worry.  But when given vague information like "I hit my head" with no idea of the severity, I just wanted to rule out the worst.  Anyways, Allison woke up happy and healthy this morning.  I am no longer worried.

Bad Words...

The other night Diana and Allison were lying in bed Allison's bed, each of them almost asleep.

"Mommy, Hate, Stupid, and Butt are bad words, right?"

"Yes."

"Which is the biggest bad word?"

"Stupid".

"And which is the littlest bad word?"

"Butt".

"Ok."

Eyes, etc

At her four year checkup, it was determined that Allison's eyes were seeing differently.  Her left eye was not awful, but noticeably worse than her right.

After seeing an eye doctor, she was given glasses for six weeks and then a followup.  The followup showed some improvement, but the doctor recommended patching for eight weeks.

Eight weeks is up, and Diana just called me after her followup.  Her eyes are showing continued improvement, both with glasses and without glasses.  That's the good news.  And I need to remember that that IS good news.  The bad news is that she needs to continue patching for as long as she continues to show improvement.  Her next appointment is four months from now.  I was really hoping that patching was behind us, and it's discouraging to hear that it's continuing indefinitely.

That said, the fact that she's showing improvement means things are working, and that's the most important thing.  I just want things to work faster!

Here are some numbers:

1/2012 without glasses before patching:  Right: 20/25  Left 20/40

 

3/2012 with glasses before patching: Right 20/20 -3 (missing 3 letters in row)  Left 20/25 -2

 

5/2012 without glasses after patching:  Right 20/25  Left 20/25 -2

 

5/2012 with glasses after patching: Right 20/20  Left 20/25 -1

 

To put this all into perspective, we're starting from a position where most people with amblyopia aspire to get to.  Some people start off at 20/400 or whatever, so we really are fine tuning.

(I still can't get over how beautiful those Romanesco broccolis are!)



Allison was eating one of these last night at dinner, and started talking to herself.

"Once upon a time, there was an island that was covered in princess castles.  There were no roads or cars or parks.  Only princess castles.  And lots of princesses."

She rubbed the broccoli in butter on her plate.

"Then, all of a sudden, it got really foggy, and the princesses were worried."

Then she took a big bite, and everyone started laughing.  It was a cute moment.

Email

I got an email from Allison this morning.  She got her 15th star (for wearing her eye patch, as well as getting dressed by herself and general good behavior), so we're off to ice cream after work!  Woo hoo!  :)

hi   dady

i  got  mi   15    star

i  love  uoo

from  allison

Word cloud

A word cloud, based on the text from this blog.  Created from here:  http://timc.idv.tw/wordcloud/en/#

Busy weekend...

It was a busy weekend.  Let's recap.

Saturday morning was Allison's friend Lily's birthday party.  It was an indoor party place with a bunch of inflatable slides and jumpies and stuff.  Allison and Lily were friends at Dorrie's daycare, but now they go to different preschools, which means that Allison was going to a party where she really only knew one person, and where that one person knew and was friends with everyone else.  In spite of that disadvantage, she had a grand old time running around and playing.  It was a lot of fun to watch her be confident in situations where previously she would have shied away.

A good example is a bunch of kids all trying to get into a jump-house at the same time through a narrow door.  Old Allison would have shied back and waited for everyone else to go through before going herself.  New Allison shoulder in along with the stampede.

We came home that afternoon, and then headed out to the Buhr's house for a going away party for Justin and Maja.  Again, it was interesting to watch her interact (or not) with the kids there.  Jaxon and Landon are older and get along well together, racing around and playing games and stuff.  While Tyler is closer to Allison's age, I think he prefers to tag along with the older boys.  None of them go out of their way to invite or exclude Allison from any of their activities, and she certainly doesn't join in with the games that they're playing on her own.  I'm not sure whether Colton was playing with the other boys or off on his own doing his own thing.  Maybe some of both.  Allison seemed happy enough running around and doing her own thing, or hanging out with her parents.

The best part of the night, though, was in the late evening as the sun was getting low.  An impromptu soccer game was going with Norm and some of the boys.  Then another adult joined in, and then another and another, and then the rest of the kids.  Soon it was like 6v7 soccer, with full sized adults and kids running around.  Allison was right out there with us.  She didn't care much for actually kicking the ball and playing soccer, but she had a great time running around, shrieking and screaming and laughing.  We played until we couldn't see anymore.  It was a lot of fun.

On Sunday, we decided to hit up the Imax theater and space museum with my parents, but soon remembered it was Earth Day and a total cluster down there.  So we aborted and went to lunch and walked on the docks and saw boats, and then over to Seaport Village to see the sights.  It was nice.  Diana and Allison then spent the afternoon with Diana's parents, while I went over to Eryn's for some board games.

Allison is still kind of hot-and-cold with her temper and demeanor.  Sometimes she can be so sweet, but she can still burst into tears at the slightest little thing.  She also has been very demanding and insistent, and we've been doing a poor job of regulating that.  We recently told her flat out that we're not going to do anything she asks unless she says "Please".  That's been extended to basic politeness, like saying hello and goodbye to people, saying "thank you", etc.  I've already seen a big improvement in the last couple days, so I'm encouraged to stick with it.

All of the above -- the whining and crying and having a hard time saying hi and bye -- remind me of myself as a kid.  So it shouldn't be too surprising, I guess.

Kindergarten registration is coming up.  Lots of papers to fill out.  There was a questionnaire for the teachers to get to know your kid, and one of the questions was "Is your child a leader or follower?"  It's an interesting question that I'm not sure how to answer.

Language Development

Two things I notice about Allison's speech.  This isn't concerning or anything, but kind of noteworthy.

She doesn't know all the irregular past tenses of verbs.  She'll default to adding "-ed" to the end of the verb.  She doesn't say "go-ed" anymore, but she'll still say things like "thinked" instead of "thought".

She'll also use "that's why" in a backwards sort of way.  Some of her squishy snakes were all tangled up in the bath.  I said "Oh, they're all tangled up!"  She said "No, they're cuddling!  That's why they're friends!"  She'll also get pissed off and throw something or yell, and say "I threw my toys!  That's why I'm angry!"

A Joke

Allison is doing a good job wearing her patch.  I tried a Norm-inspired joke on her.

 

"Allison, I have a joke for you… are you ready?"

"Okay…"

"What is a pirate's favorite letter?"

 

*Allison giggles, as if that's the joke*

 

"Nonono, that's not the joke.  What is a pirate's favorite letter?"

"I don't know…."

"Arrrrrrrr!"

 

…

 

"Why?"

 

Explaining the joke didn't really make it very funny.  Oh well.