Mellow days

We took Blaise over to the Common and the Public Garden this morning. She wasn't very interested in the ducks and the frog pond was closed, but she had a great time toddling around in the grass.

She continues to be fun and silly, with occasional bouts of toddler temper. After a stretch of serious eating, long naps and short temper, she's grown about 3 inches in the last week or so. But she's not as pathetically skinny as she used to get after growth spurts, so hopefully we're doing well on the weight gain front, too.

On a blog housekeeping note, we've turned comment moderation on for the blog. We were having a lot of issues with spambots. Please don't let the moderation stop you from posting. We love to hear from you all and your support means the world to us.

Coming Home-iversary

It's Blaise's first Coming Home-iversary! Happy Coming Home-iversary, Blaise!

We didn't have a party for Blaise's birthday. We had a soy-free, icing-free vegan cake, some pink champagne and a quiet day at home. To be honest, Blaise's birthday was very hard for us. It was the anniversary the most wonderful thing I have ever experienced and the absolute worst thing I have ever experienced. It brought back a lot of feelings and fears that had been suppressed. I know that the tangle of emotions and memories will fade with time and be replaced with happy birthdays and good memories, but this year, a party was just not an option. There was too much to work through.

We had talked about having a party on Blaise's due date instead, a sort of "supposed-to-be" birthday party. But that didn't feel quite right. If we've learned one thing in the last 17 months, it's that "supposed-to-be" doesn't matter; you have to work with the world as it is. The Coming Home-iversary, however, seems like a great thing to celebrate. That's an easy day to remember: excitement and nervousness and frustration (Just bring the damn paperwork and let us out of here!), but mostly joy. The end of 21 endless weeks and the beginning of the new normal. 52 weeks home have made 21 weeks inpatient more than worth it.


PS Happy 4th Birthday, Max!

First concert

We took Blaise to her first live concert today. They Might Be Giants was playing in Arlington and we've been playing their "Here Comes Science" CD for weeks, so we decided to check it out. We had to wake Blaise up from her nap early to make it in time, which went better than we thought it would. Then, about 90 seconds before the show started, Blaise threw up. (It is not a matter of whether a short gut kid will throw up, but when.) Fortunately, Ben had reminded me this morning to replace the emergency outfit in the diaper bag with one that would actually fit, and with a little help from Aunt Kate, we had Blaise cleaned up and ready to rock before the first song was over.

Blaise had a great time dancing, clapping and waving at the band, although she didn't quite get the concept of the encore and tried to leave. Her reaction to the confetti machine was excellent (brief startle, then calm pointing). We didn't know whether she would recognize the songs, but she definitely perked up for the ones from the CD we have. We'll be signing her up for accordion lessons just as soon as we think she's stable enough on her feet to hold an accordion.

Cross-species negotiations

Not a whole lot of news...just some footage of Blaise re-opening dialogue with the cat. Watch for the look of befuddled terror on Leila's face near the last two-thirds of the movie.

Sniffles, sass and silliness

My apologies for the lack of updates. We all came down with a cold last week, which wasn't fun. Blaise is also working on cutting her eighth incisor and a third molar. Coupled with the cold, that made for one miserable baby. But we're all back to normal now.

Colds aside, Blaise is great. Her walking is amazing and gets better every day. She's been eating well. We've started a fish trial and it's going okay so far. She's also getting better at drinking with her straw cup. She must be growing because we've had to go up a size in clothes. My perspective on how kids grow is completely off. I mentioned to Ben that Blaise had completely outgrown her 9 month pajamas. He reminded me that this was perhaps unsurprising, as she's 16 months old. We are one month from our next clinic appointment, which looms as the day they might decide we can lose the tube. We're trying not to get too psyched up about it.

I'm also pretty sure we've crossed the threshold into toddlerhood. Our easy-going baby is increasingly capricious and very easily frustrated. That said, you hear a lot about toddlerhood being difficult, but the flipside is that she's also tons of fun. It's a nothing-by-halves sort of stage.

Madeline

I love Madeline, from the Bemelmans books. What's not to love? She's tough, brave, petite and has a scar on her belly from emergency surgery. Sound like anyone we know? As it turns out, Blaise also loves Madeline. "Madeline" was her first word, she cuddles with Madeline to fall asleep and she likes to listen to the Madeline books. Actually, she LOVES to listen to the Madeline books. Ben has been away at a conference since Thursday morning and I would estimate that we've read Madeline (the original) at least 10 times a day, with me sneaking Madeline's Rescue in occasionally to break things up. She came close to having a fit when I drew the line at reading it for the fifth time in a row yesterday. I know toddlers are into repetition. I even know many of the theories about why, but this is becoming ridiculous. We went to the library this morning for toddler story time. As the crowd was clearing, Blaise crawled over to the shelves, found Madeline (how did she do that? does she know that library shelves are in alphabetical order by author?) and handed me the book, saying "Mad'ine! Mad'ine!" Ideas for how to stage an intervention with a toddler are welcome.

Aside from this obsession, things are pretty quiet around here. The toddling is progressing well. We're still trying to figure out daycare options. And we're making great fundraising progress for our walk in June. If you can help out, even with just $10, we'd appreciate it. I can't think of a better way to honor Blaise, her progress and the care she received at Children's than to help other kids in similar situations. Thanks to everyone who has already donated!