Chants, Code Word, Footloose, Mine

He's Alive

Dodo is still alive......he even survived the cleaning of his tank....so did I

Gregorian Chanting

Lucy chants...and I find it oddly comforting. I know I've mentioned it before but she seems to be doing it more and more of late and whats funny is it now takes on a sing-songy way about it. She'll be sitting in her crib, waiting for one of us to come get her and we'll hear, Elmo Elmo Elmo! Elmo Elmo Elmo! Elmo Elmo Elmo! And if you sneak around the corner, you can actually catch her bobbing her little head from side to side.

Dodo is the favorite chant right now....though it has yet to trump Elmo.

I am your Father

Sean got his sleep machine things round about a month ago. It took me a few nights to get used to the noise it makes but once I did, I've slept great...And Sean has done quite well adapting to wearing it.Its not nearly as big as we both thought it would be but it does in fact make him sound like Darth Vader.

The base sits on his night stand and is no bigger than a desk phone. It has a little reservoir for water (a personal humidifier) and a hose that leads to the head gear which looks very much like the oxygen mask on an airplane. And it fits over his head pretty much the same way. But the "mask" it self is not really a mask....its more like an over sized oxygen feed that fits in his nose. His chin/mouth/nose are not actually covered, he just slips it on over his head and two straps run across his cheeks leading to the "pillows" he puts in his nose to help him breathe, sleep and not snore

One morning, not long after said contraption made its debut, Lucy roused herself about 5am....45 minutes before we're supposed to get up and get dressed for the day. Rather than trying to get her to go back to sleep in her crib, I snuck her into our bed for a morning snuggle. So Lucy and I were laying there chattering quietly while Sean was still sleeping....on his side, facing us.

All of a sudden, Lucy decides to sit up and in doing so, she kicked her legs out which got caught in the hose of Sean's mask. She thrashes around for a few seconds trying to get untangled (it was like seeing a baby cow stuck in a barbed wire fence...just without the mooing and the sharp points digging into her flesh and drawing blood)  But while she was trying to get untangled, she got more tangled and then yelped in frustration and just threw her legs down onto the bed with all her might.....and when she jerked her legs, and the hose along with it, she did so a lot harder than she probably meant to which resulted in the pillows being dislodged from Sean's nose.....which resulted in him jerking up out of a sound sleep gasping for air and flailing his arms about as if someone was holding a pillow over his face.....which resulted in scaring Lucy who started to whimper.......when Sean finally opened his eyes (all wide and crazy like) he started sputtering and yelling which scared Lucy even more so she tucked herself into a little ball and started rolling away to avoid being hit by octopus arms.....

I fell out of the bed.....partly because Lucy did a tuck and roll, partly because I was ducking to keep from getting hit by Sean but mostly because I started laughing.....

(Wife's note: I am not making fun of my husband or minimizing the trauma and shock I'm sure having forced oxygen ripped out of your nose could cause...if it hadn't ended well, I would not be blogging about it...I'd be blogging about our trip to the ER. So I mean no disrespect to my husband....and its not that I don't care about him, I care very much...he is after all 50% of my blog inspiration.)

Code Word Puppies

If Lucy runs to the door and says Puppies? it's code for where are Ebony and Ollie (the dogs that live next door)

If she points to the TV and says Puppies? it's is code for can we turn on Animal Planet and watch the dog show

If Lucy stands in front of her toys and says Puppies! Its code for I want to pull out the stuffed puppy dogs and play with them, please get them for me I can't reach

If she's laying on the changing table and says Puppies? its a ploy to distract you from the task at hand, don't fall for it

Please, Thank You, Love You

Three new phrases to add to the repertoire......

I love that she is becoming a polite little being......sometimes she has to be prompted but she has gotten pretty good at knowing when she needs to say thank you (like every time you hand her something or when I put her dinner on her tray in front of her)

My favorite is hearing her little "Love you" after she waves bye to me or after I give her a kiss....melts my  heart every time....

No


Another favorite phrase of Lucy's but not mine...No.
Thing is, she is so darn cute when she says it...she tosses her head to the side, bats her eyes and clutches her hands to her chest while saying so sweetly Noooo....she is so cute that its hard to get upset with her...but I do

BYE

Last night I ran Lucy up to see the pediatrician about a pretty bad diaper rash, a hoarse cough and a possible UTI.

Poor thing felt quite sorry for herself and cried all the way to the office (about a 25 minute drive with the traffic) She wailed even louder when we walked in the building and it took the  nurse and I 15 minutes to wrestle her out of her PJs and onto the scale to be weighed. Then it was another 8 minutes to get her temperature....under her arm!

The doctor finally came in and poked and prodded some more which resulted in louder wails, gushing tears and chants of Mama, Daddy, Daddy, Mama, Daaadddyyy.....

When the doctor finally finished, Lucy leaped (literally) into my arms, buried her face in my neck and continued whimpering throwing her head back once every few seconds to let out a yell as if to remind us she was still there. We chatted with the doctor and he finished by telling us he'd be back after her labs were
finished.

As he opened the door, Lucy picked up her head and yelled quite authoritatively BYE! translation: get the hell out of here and don't come back!!!

(Mummy's Note: No UTI, bad diaper rash to be treated with Hydro Cortisone and Triple Paste, no croup, probably just a little viral thing or possibly seasonal allergies/reaction to change in season)

Footloose

Lucy likes music.

For the longest time, we were stuck on the sound track to the Curious George movie as done by Jack Johnson (if you are a JJ fan, this is a great album). Then we moved onto the music from the movie August Rush. Then, we introduced her to Elvis, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin and a bit of Jamie Cullum.

She's always moved her head or her torso to the music....never really danced because she was either on the table being changed/dressed or she was sitting on the floor looking at books and the music was just on in the background...Until we received the 30 Children's Favorites to Sing Along To as recorded by the Walt Disney Studios.

It has If You're Happy and You Know It, Shoo Fly, Knick Knack Paddy Whack, Three Blind Mice, I've Been Working on the Railroad, The Mail Must go Through, The Hokey Poky, Daisy, It Ain't Gonna Rain...just to name a few.

We now listen to this CD in the car(s), in the bedroom, in the kitchen and if we don't have a music player, we sing. But when you stop singing or there is a pause in between the songs on the CD, Lucy starts yelling More! More! while clapping her hands and giggling

And if she's on the table, she yells Up! (which in this case means down) and she hops to the floor and starts twirling and dancing (naked, half dressed, dressed, she does not care as long as she gets to twirl)
And if she is in her car seat, she throws her body side to side while clapping and laughing.
And if she is in her high seat, she claps and shakes her head to the side...but if she is standing, she twirls,.

When she is done twirling, and after she bumps into the wall or crib because she is dizzy, she rocks back and forth tossing her weight from side to side while her head moves in the opposite direction....and she yells More! More!

MINE!

New word in Lucy's vocabulary: Mine.
Everything is mine, mine mine.

Sean says to me this morning, I don't like that she says mine so much, where did she pick this up?
Really I say, you have no idea?
No he says. Why would she say mine?

Try Elmo in Grouchland

Yep, that movie that Daddy downloaded for her and lets her watch over and over and over again....

In the movie, Mean Old Huxley (Mandy Patikin) sings a song about taking things and making them his...or Mine as the song goes. And, Elmo has a scene in which he chants Mine Mine Mine Mine!!! while fighting over a blanket with Zoe...this is where Lucy got Mine!!.....or, she could have heard Sean and I arguing over who got the last bit of ice cream....

Maria, the Mum