Third

This is Anja right now. Yes, she is wearing pants. No, she is not wearing a shirt. It wasn't removed due to warm weather or even toddler tantrums. Her last outfit is covered in puke.

This morning was a regular morning for us. Kids slept fine, but got up early. Then we went to Nana and Boppa's house to pick up some toys from when I was growing up. Anja played with her cousins for about an hour.

Then all hell broke loose.

Anja complained about her ear hurting and was crying uncontrollably. Behind her ear was red, dry and tender to the touch and she was tired and asked to go to bed. So we put some ointment on it and took her up for a nap. After 30 minutes of all out sobbing, we noticed she now had a rash and it covered a large portion of the back of her head. We gave her some Benadryl and packed the kids into the car and headed out. About a mile from my parents' house, she puked. Everywhere. We bee lined it for a closer urgent care as she continued to puke and complain about the stench.

Thankfully, there was no one else at this urgent care, so we got in right away. And the diagnosis? Heat rash and double ear infection.

Again.

Three weeks ago she received penicillin for strep throat. It didn't work.

Two weeks ago she was put on a 10 day course of amoxycillin for strep, double ear infection and double eye infection.

Today she received a different shot AND will be on a 5 day course of Azithromycin. Hopefully the third time's the charm.

*Note: I wrote this from my phone while waiting for Dan to pick up Anja's prescription. I lead a glamorous life. Try not be so jealous.

Favorite Things

For Anja's preschool homework, we had a sheet to fill out. It called for basic information about her - name, age, number of sibilings, etc. But there were a few questions we didn't have the answers to, so last night, Anja stood on a chair at the kitchen island while I interviewed her.

Me: What's your favorite food?

Anja: Hmmm...chocolate bear crackers. [Chocolate Teddy Grahams]

Me: What food don't you like to eat.

Anja: Onions.

Me: What's your favorite thing to do at school?

Anja: At Nex Juner, I like to play where the curtains are [puppet show theater, presumably].

Me: What's your favorite thing to do at home?

Anja: The dishes.

Somehow I don't think her answer for the last one will be the same in 10 years.

And here is what I think Ian's answers would be to the same questions.

Me: Favorite food?

Ian: Milk. Oh, and pears. But mostly milk.

Me: Least favorite food?

Ian: Rice cereal. Blech. Unless it's mixed with lots and lots of milk. Or pears. Pears are good, too.

Me: Favorite thing to do at school/daycare?

Ian: Drink milk.

Me: Favorite thing to do at home?

Ian: Drink milk.

Big Day

Ian turned 6 months old today! Our little man has 2 teeth, sits up for short periods of time, wears size 12 month clothes(!), and is the happiest little man you ever did meet!

And today was Anja's first day of preschool! She was very excited about going to Nex Juner and bring her special giant red bag with her elephant name tag. She apparently had a good time, but all I got out of her was that another girl there took a cup away from her and didn't give it back and that they sang a hello song and a song about washing hands. And that next week they're celebrating her birthday. I've also discovered that preschool has a lot of homework. For the parents. Enrollment forms, health forms, Scholastic book orders (remember those?!), personal information forms, family page form, personal page form...And apparently we bring the snacks on her birthday celebration day. But we can't bring anything from a bakery or that's homemade or was made in the same factory as a peanut. Preschool is hard.
And after a long, fun filled day, Anja settles in with her new princess water bottle, Dora jammies, Pooh socks, and some "Bubble Guppies."

Ballerina

For Anja's birthday, she received dance lessons from Nana and Boppa. After a week and a half of torture waiting, Anja was super excited for her first lesson tonight. The dance studio is right down the street from us (less than a 3 minute drive), but since it was just me with the kids, I made sure to plan an early enough departure in case one or both of them became, well, slow. Luckily, they were just fine and so we ended up getting there very early. Since Ian was tired, I pointed out the dance studio to Anja and explained I was going to just drive around for a minute to see if Ian would go to sleep. She quickly commented, "You can drive around in a circle, but only in a circle, ok? It's my first day of dance school and I need to meet my new teacher and can't be late. And you have to watch Dora dance. So just go in a circle, ok?"

Needless to say, I just turned around and we headed in to meet her teacher.

Anja is in a class of 6 or 7 three year old girls. Before class started, her teacher, Miss Gwen, informed us of the logistics and sent us to the windows to watch. Anja cried a bit once she realized I was gone, but then, with a little encouragement, got right back into the mix and had no more issues.

The 30 minute class passed quickly and she was active the entire time and was incredibly sad to leave and wants to go back tomorrow. She'll have to wait a week, but I wish she could go back tomorrow, too. She was so tuckered that she went to sleep without any issues. Once I got her out of her leotard, that is!

*I'd suggest muting your computer for the video. You can't hear anything but the other parents talking about totally unrelated topics.

Nex Juner

All summer, Anja has been asking when she gets to go to "nex juner." For the life of us, we couldn't figure out what she was saying. We knew she meant preschool, but had no idea where the phrase came from. We thought maybe it was "next June", but she doesn't know about months and school didn't start then anyway. Maybe it was a German word that she couldn't pronounce? We had just given up on figuring it out and just started calling it "nex juner," too.

Well, nex juner started today with an orientation. Anja and Dan went and met her teachers, saw the room, met the other kids and parents, got to see her special bag she'll use every week for taking home her projects and the hook with an elephant and her name on it for hanging the bag. Despite being shy and nervous at the beginning, by the time it was over, Anja was bummed to leave. She wanted to stay at nex juner longer and play at the rice table. She is very excited to return to nex juner next week.

Hopefully by then we can kick her of the habit of calling it that.

Or at the very least, convince her it's not a good idea to call it that at her preschool.

We figured out what she has been saying.

"Nick Junior. It's preschool on TV."

We're awesome parents.

Double Negatives

In honor of Anja's birthday, Ian decided to sprout his second tooth. That meant lots of drool, snot, and coughing. In other words, he fit right in with his big sister and daddy.

When Anja is sick, she gets cranky. Suddenly her favorite phrase becomes "I don't want nothing!" But since she is already cranky, correcting her grammar is less than effective.

Yesterday, she started completing about her ear hurting. Based on that and Ian pulling on his ears, we decided to go in to the late night pediatrician.

We got an appointment for both of them at 8:15 about 25 minutes away from our house. After a quick check, we breathed a sigh of relief when both were negative for ear infections. On a gut feeling, I had them check Anja for strep.

Turns out, in this case two negatives do equal a positive.

Anja has strep but shows no symptoms. Ian is fine, luckily, because based on the amount of time and effort that went into getting Anja a shot of penicillin, I wouldn't want to have to repeat that any time soon.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Anja!

Dear Birthday Girl,
You have made the past 3 years an absolute blessing! You are hysterical, unbelievably smart, independent, caring and sweet and I am thankful every day for you! I am always amazed at what you can do and look forward to seeing your personality develop even more. We love you whole bunches!
Love,
Mommy, Daddy, and Ian