The Business of Baby

Christmas is no fun this year for me. I am sick with pneumonia since Monday (sob!).

And its not the "walking" kind either where you take antibiotics and go about your day.

I have been in bed (!) with a fever and chills for 4 days plus have a horrible ache in my right chest and shoulder blade. All this started almost a week ago. It could not have come at a  worst time of the year.

Here is what happened.

I was perfectly fine last weekend. We had a great time. I took Beanie, my niece and my Mom out to lunch on Sunday and later went to watch the Nutcraker ballet. It was a fun afternoon.

The next day Monday morning - all was well. I dropped Beanie to school, came home, ate breakfast, showered. Did some work. Then took a break to pack her presents from me and Santa (just as well in hindsight!). I was achy in my legs but thought they were just tight since I have not gone for yoga in forever. I did some stretching which helped.

I got on a call with a customer at 11 am. It went on for about 35 min and by the end of the call I realized I was feeling cold. I was surprised given it was a mild day, but I thought nothing of it. I had been sitting motionless for 30 min, maybe I got chilled.

I turned on the heater, put on a sweater and some warm sock and drank some hot water. Normally that would get rid of any chills, but it did not. I got a blanket and kept working. By the time my 1pm conference call ended, I was freezing with really bad chills so I took my temperature which was close to 101.

I was very surprised. I had no other symptoms. Anyway, I took advil, called my parents who were supposed to pick Beanie up from school anyways (they do it every Mon), and I emailed my boss that I was taking the day off.

I was almost shaking with cold, so I made a hot water bottle ad go into bed and about 30-40 min began sweating as the fever came down. But by the time Beanie was home it was back up.

The UrgentCare is open until 8pm, I figured I would go and get it looked at. I never get fevers so I knew it meant an infection somewhere.  My sweet Dad drove me.

The NP checked me out. She said that it may be a virus since my lungs were clear and nose, ears etc. They swabbed me for flu which was negative. I did take a flu shot in Sept. She said to go home and manage the fever and to come back if anything changes.

By the time I was home my fever was 102 and I was FREEZING. I took Tylenol and sat by the heater. My Mom went home to get stuff to spend the night. Poor Beanie was so worried but she sat and played music for me and did drawings.

That night Beanie slept with my Mom in the guest room. I did not want her close to me. Around 11pm my right side started aching really bad. It felt like a really bad muscle pull. The pain wrapped around by shoulder, chest and side of the back. It was REALLY bad.

For some weird reason it did cross my mind about it being perhaps lung related. I though a blood clot (!), but I noticed that when I got comfortable it did not hurt. I was still having fever so was taking Advil/Tylenol though the night. I kept thinking maybe I should wake my Mom or go to ER. I did not want to bother my Dad. Maybe call an ambulance, but ER waits are so long I figured I would wait. If it had been my Left side I would not have hesitated!!

I did not sleep until about 3am when a dose of Advil I think helped. I had decided to get it checked in the AM, though I was thinking it was probably a muscle spasm. I was very cold sitting in the exam room the evening before so I though maybe something spasmed.

My own Drs office was busy that day, but I got an appt for 4pm with another doctor in the practice. However, I decided to not waste time but go back to Urgent Care. I was back there right when they opened and saw another NP. She took an EKG to rule out any heart issues and sent me for a chest XRay. My lungs sounded fine.

Twenty minutes later she came back and says - you have pneumonia in your upper right lung!

I was shocked!!  How did I get it with no cold or anything. Well apparently you can and in my later incessant googling I presented with classic symptoms - sudden onset fever, shaking chills, body aches,followed by about 12 hrs later chest pain and ID on XRay.

So I was put on ZPack and came home to be, where I still am today.

On Thursday I went in to see my own Dr. I was still having a fever, but she said it would take a while to resolve and be patient. She prescribed me another ZPack if the fever had not gone by today.

Today I took My Day5 of ZPack. The fever broke yesterday, so I am hoping its really gone. I woke up this AM with bad pain again, so I called the on-call Dr.  She was really nice and felt that one Zpack may not be enough so told me to start the second one tomorrow. She was reassured with the fact that the fever is gone, and told me to take Muc.inex.  Oddly the first 3 days I had no cough, but now I do. They do not suggest taking anything for cough since its the body's way of healing.

So I am still in bed. Resting, drinking water and taking pain pills for my upper back pain. I know the recovery is very slow....

But it is hard, I have a kid to take care of. Thank god for my Mom who has completely taken over Beanie's care. Luckily Beanie's school was open this week so we did not have to keep her busy at home. But she is home the next 4 days and I had planned to enjoy Christmas with her.

I have not hugged her since Mon. I wear a mask around her since I am terrified of her getting it too.

Emotionally I am not good. I have been worried about Beanie getting it, or me getting worse and dying. I was in tears at my Drs office on Thursday, she assured me I will be fine. Of course, it does not help that its been gray and rainy and depressing weather all week long.

Oh and I was planning to do my XMas shopping this week....so no presents for anyone, except Beanie (who I bought and wrapped before my illness struck) and my sister's two cats!!

Please send healing thoughts my way. I need them!

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy holiday season!

We have had some good fun over the Fall. Below are some of the activities we have done.

1. Attended our local Arts and Crafts festival. Beanie and I had a really nice time. We happened to meet one of Beanie's friends which made it even more fun. Beanie bought a purse and some jewelry.

Beanie and her friend M

2. Attended two puppet shows in the city. The first show we attended with the same friend I mentioned above. The other one - a XMas show - we attended with my Mom. Beanie loves going to see these shows! I love seeing her looking at the stage with rapt attention :-)

Create -a - puppet workshop

Dressed as Belle for Halloween

Beanie made this in class - melted my heart!

6. Thanksgiving was at my sister's. It was nice however, I was battling a cold and the next day Beanie got sick with a really bad cough, so the rest of the weekend was spent staying home, Dr visits and prednisone for poor Beanie. She is fine now, and we have her back on Flo.vent for the winter months to avoid any futher issues. It had really helped her last winter. I still have thick mucous stuck behind my nose - ugh! Last year we were sick most of Nov and Dec...hopefully not this year!

Unrelated to post above - last night I was reading past posts on my blog until quite late at night. It was so enjoyable reliving moments from previous years. It made me realize I need to post more often!

Beanie started her new school on Monday. She is in the private Pre-K (they also have a lottery state-paid Pre K).

It was a difficult decision to take her out of the school she had been the past 3 years. I worried about taking her out of her comfort zone, but the new 3pm closure did not work for me. Also, the new teacher (in her old school) was not doing any work with the older kids.  My Mom used to teach Math and English but was asked to stop since the new teacher wanted to do it all. But she was really not focused on the older kids, In Montessori, there is a mix of all age group, and for some reason this year there were more 2-3 years old kids, so the focus was on them. As such, between the work not being challenging for Beanie and the timings changed, it seemed the right decision to move her. 

Well, Beanie loves her new school :-)

She had a great week!  Everything is new and exciting. They have a set schedule that they follow and they do some writing work and math every day.  The school has a really nice playground, which basically sold Beanie on the school - lol. They also have music and Chinese, both of which used to be at her old school but were stopped when the new teacher joined. Beanie missed it!

The teachers in her new school are very nice. They have cameras in the class which I LOVE. I have been able to watch Beanie and see how she is doing.

This is a bigger school and more professionally run. They encourage parents to interact with the teachers; another thing her old school did not do.  In fact the new teacher joined in June, and it was Nov when we left and I had still had not met her formally or had a PT conference to understand what her plans were for the year!  In the new school, the PT meeting dates are scheduled months in advance. One can talk to the teacher during pick-up/drop off and (gasp!) call the classroom too if needed.

The kids are nice. There is one girl who was with Beanie as a baby in the infant room at this same establishment. Isn't that cool?! The moment I saw this little girl, I knew it was that same baby all grown up (I also recognized her name). That girl has been at this school since 2013. There is also one girl from Beanie's old school so that is a familiar face.

Like most bigger schools they have fun activities, such as a parent lunch for TG, and a Santa visit and a XMas recital. Beanie is really enjoying it all.

I am so happy and relieved.

Today when I logged into watch her around 10:30am, she was busy doing an activity with  some other kids and I could see based on her body language that she was having a great time. I think she enjoys being in a room full of kids around her age. The kids are all either 4 yrs old already, or will be 4 years old by Dec 1.

Another big plus is that the new school is  a 5 min drive from our house. I save a ton of time each day in commuting. The old school was 15 min away so that added up to an hour a day of drive time.

The one disappointment for me is that my Mom is not teaching Beanie. That was the single biggest reason I had Beanie attending the Montessori school and I was looking forward to her learning from my Mom this year. My Mom is a fabulous teacher and all the kids she taught have done very well in K and onward.  Beanie was learning vowels, writing sentences and doing addition before the new teacher joined in June. The new school does basic Pre-K work, not as advanced as my Mom would do.  At home my Mom tries to do work with Beanie but its a hit/miss since Beanie only wants to play with Grammy at home - sigh!  Anyway, my Mom has decided to leave the school as well. She was only staying on for Beanie.

Overall we are pleased with the decision, and I am so proud of Beanie and how well she is adjusting. Both her teachers really like Beanie since she is a model student - intelligent, creative, polite, follows instructions and is not disruptive.

Beanie is no longer a toddler!

In the past couple of weeks, I have seen her physically transform into a little girl.

She is taller and leaner.

At first, I thought it was because after wearing dresses all summer, she was in long shirts and pants which may have been accentuating her height.

But no.


Today we went to see a puppet show and met up with a friend and her daughter who is in K, but was in Beanie's school earlier. My friend remarked as well about Beanie looking different and more grown up.

This is one of the most amazing things of motherhood - watching a child grow. I recall couple of years ago, when I first noticed a big change in Beanie. Her face literally changed from baby to toddler overnight.  It was so strange, and I remarked to my Mom - Beanie looks different!

So, now I have a little girl, who is smart and sweet and has an answer for everything.

The other day I was driving and was thinking about something related to work. Beanie was chatting away, so I told her "Sorry Beanie, Mommy is being quiet because I was thinking about something".

She replies - "Mama, I don't think its a good idea to be thinking about anything when driving. You should concentrate so you don't get a bumpity with a car!"

I could not help but laugh and tell her she was absolutely right.


Today when we parked at the puppet show, just as I was getting her out of the car she says "I want to give you a kissy, Mama, for bringing me so far away to see a puppet show."

Melted my heart!!

Its been a while since I posted. Here is a quick update:

The biggest thing to document is that Beanie is now reading :-) I am very excited and so is she. She is reading simple beginner books and enjoys it.  I look forward to watching her develop her reading. We go to the library every week (almost!) and we both enjoy it. She picks books she wants me to read to her but now we will look for books she can read herself.

We are looking forward to the Fall. We have picked pumpkins and completed our Fall/Halloween decorations. We picked a costume for Beanie. She wanted to be a princess so we picked a beautiful yellow princess outfit from Wal.Mart.  Neither of us are too familiar with Disney princesses so I had to read the label to see which princess it was - Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Beanie looks adorable in it and is looking forward to wearing it for Halloween.

Over the next few weekend we will do some Fall festivals and go to the farm for a hayride/corn maze. We also plan to see a puppet show in the city with a friend.

Tomorrow I am going to see a play with my neighbor. I am excited for a Mommy afternoon out!

The biggest stress the past few months has been Beanie's school. There have been a lot of issues/changes and the latest is that they plan to close at 3pm instead of 5:30pm!  I usually pick Beanie up at 4:45pm.  The new pick up is in the middle of my workday and I am not sure how that will work out for us.  Beanie is a bit better about watching some TV quietly, but she cannot occupay herself for too long and will interrupt me when I am on calls. It will not be easy. My Mom has offered to come in earlier in the afternoon to help.  My Mom usually comes in at 5pm and stay until about 6:30 allowing me to finish work and cook dinner.  Now she would have to come at no later than 4pm. It will be hard for her to stay that long (I feel guilty) although she would always be there if I needed her.

Next week I am taking Beanie for a "play date" at another pre-school to see how she likes it. Its not Montessori, but I think Beanie has had the advantage of Montessori for 3+ years so she is pretty good in that area.  I will see how she likes this new school and if she does I may move her.  Coincidentally,  all three of Beanie's BFFs left her current school and moved out of state (within a month of each other) due to parent's work. As such, she does not have any close friends left in the school. Many teachers have left as well, so other than the familiarity of the place there is not much holding her there. My Mom works there 2 days a week, and Beanie likes that, so that is the other issue.

We shall see.

She got a big girl bed this weekend and she has been sleeping in it for 2 nights now!

When Beanie was a new born and until about 3 mos she slept in a bassinet next to my bed. Then at 3 mos, I put her in the crib, which I moved to my room. She was always a poor sleeper so I figured it would save me walking down the hallway at all hours of the night.  She was doing pretty well in the crib, but at about 6mos old she got RSV from daycare.  I was worried sick and would bring her to bed so I could monitor her breathing. She (and I) was sick on/off the entire winter in 2013, so she stayed with me and soon it just became a habit.  When i did try to move her to the crib she would not stay in it beyond a few hours.

So time went by and it became the norm. Oddly enough, it did not bother me much. However, she is much bigger now and moves around a lot at night.  She likes to sleep sideways so her feet are near my tummy, which makes me nervous, an does not make for a restful sleep. Also, I have to huff and puff and move her at night to sleep the right way, so not great sleep for her either. 

Last year we got rid of the binky, and bottle and got her potty trained, so I decided to keep the bed move for this year.  We started talking about it some months ago, and she said she wanted her own bed but to stay in my room. 

Okay - fair compromise!  

My room is huge and it seems like a good first step. 

I bought her a cute twin bed in white and I borrowed a mattress from my parents (I will buy her a new mattress once I know this works!).   We went to Tar.get the week before and she bought sheets, a blanket, a comforter set for winter, a lamp and some fun pillows.  On Saturday, I put the bed together, washed everything, and she was able to sleep on it on Sunday night. 

Since her bed is next to mine I can reach out and she can hold my hand while she falls asleep. Usually she would fall asleep on my shoulder. There is a 2 inch gap between the beds (due to the "lip" of each bed), so I have a body pillow there to fill that gap. 

On the other side of her bed, is my bedside table which she is now using. She has put all her "stuff" there. Water, tissues, some small toys, etc - so cute!  I have her crib mattress on the floor and lots of pillows to break her fall should she roll off the bed.

I have a bed rail that I purchased, but the problem is those need to be used with a mattress and box spring. Her bed is a platform bed...so I am struggling with what to do here.  I think I will buy a low profile platform (4 inches) so it will allow me to use the side rail (and get rid of the million pillows) and also raise her bed to the height of mine. Right now she is about 5 inches lower. I also plan to buy her a small white side table.

As you can see, we are not all done yet, but its been so cool having her sleep on her own. 

She is getting better sleep since I don't have to keep moving her at night. My sleep is better. The first night I could not sleep since I kept worrying she would fall even though the bed is not high and I have all the pillows etc there. Last night I slept better. Also when I wake up I don't disturb her.

All in all its been great. She has slept 2 nights there and I am hoping that continues.

In a few months, we will move the bed to the wall adding some space between our beds, and then eventually to her own room, but for now this is a big milestone!

I have been wanting to write a post to document some of the sweet baby words Beanie used when she was just beginning to talk.

She is now of course completely conversational and talks like an 8 year old, using words like  "spectacular", "cooperate", "regular", "usually", 'digesting" "exhausting" "ruined"...all in appropriate context.  The other night she lay in bed and said "I am exhausted" (lol)...of course she probably heard me use the word but the fact she remembered and used it in context made me laugh.

Many times I have stopped and ask her "what did you say?" because she uses a word that just blows my mind. The other day she said "amphibian"...I asked her what it was and she said "a frog is an amphibian". She knows her numbers and most of her alphabets and sounds, so we while driving we enjoy reading speed limits and reading license plates.

Here are some of the words she used when she was just learning to talk:

1. Dammy = Grammy
2. Instash = attach
3. Shut door shut = closing a door
4. Cutting knife = knife  (cute how she added the cutting to it!)
5. Chool = school
6. Aminal = animal
7. Tree Tundel = tree tunnel
8. Away Away = when she wanted something/someone to move away
9. Coucha = Couch or sofa

The one word she still mispronounces which is so adorable is "regular"...she uses it a lot and always pronounces it "reguLEAR".

I have so much more to blog about but just don't find the time. Maybe on Friday evening, when Beanie is at my parents, I can do some short posts.

We have been enjoying summer. Below are some fun things we did.

1. Attended a balloon festival!!
This was really fun but a very long and hot day. We had a play date with another family and arrived at 3pm thinking it would be crazy busy but it was not. They had a small trackless train that we rode on, about 7 different bounce houses (Beanie was going crazy- lol), face painting, pizza, ice cream, etc. The balloons were to be inflated at 5pm but due to high winds they were delayed until 7pm. In fact, we had given up and were on our way out when Beanie happened to look back and saw a balloon being inflated. So we walked all the way back and saw them. Amazing!




2. Fun in the City
I decided to switch things up this year. Instead of going on a trip during in the summer break, I decided to take my parents and Beanie up to the city to do some fun things. Parking is always an issue, so it made sense to stay overnight at a hotel and cram in all the activities I wanted to do with Beanie. We had a blast!

View from the hotel. We could see the outdoor 7th floor pool from our room. Beanie enjoyed the pool!!

At the aquarium.

Practically underwater!

So awesome!

Checking out the fountains.

We went back the next morning to really splash about.

Playing with the big boys at the kid's museum

Painting wall at the museum.

3. Enjoying fireworks on July 4th



4. Fun visiting friends and family for BBQs and parties

 5. Playing in our inflatable pool.
This year Beanie has been enjoying the small inflatable pool. Last year we only used it 1-2 times, this year she has used it much more often.




6. Learning to swim
Swim lessons continued in July and after 3 months of continuous swim lessons (April -July) Beanie can swim!   She can swim half the breadth of a pool. I am so proud of her!

7. Visting the local farmers market.
We finally made to the farmers market last week. It was a short and unhappy visit since I promised Beanie a Popsicle and turns out the Popsicle guy was not there that day. That made for an unhappy 4 year old. She did get some face painting on her arm, and I assured her we would get ice cream later after we walked around a bit.  Unfortunately, it did not suffice, so we left in a flood of tears and disappointment- sigh!




8. The one thing we were unable to do this summer was blueberry picking. About two weekends ago, we went to the local farm and were disappointed to learn that the season ended early this year. Then last Sat we went to check out a local church that has blueberry fields, but that was also closed for the season :-(  

Beanie's two week summer break ends today.


Tomorrow she is back to school, and I am back to work.

I took this week off and we did some fun things which I will post about in a few days.  The previous week I had 7/3 and 7/4 off and worked the rest of the week.  My Mom was out of town but I got some help from my Dad. Also, the teenager down the street came over for 3 hrs each day. Beanie really enjoyed playing with her.

It has been fun sleeping in and not having to rush out the door each morning, but I am ready for Beanie to be back in school. She is still at an age when she wants is constant attention and someone to play with, and frankly it gets exhausting after a while. Especially since I also have things to do to keep the house running - such as cook, clean and do laundry, groceries, pay bills, etc.

I feel I am completely unproductive during my time off :-(   My work keeps piling up - e.g. clean my closet, tidy the garage, organize Beanie's closet. And don't even get me started on activities such as, organizing photos, hanging up artwork, etc.

Sigh!!

Tomorrow will be interesting. Getting Beanie to go to school after a break is hard enough, but she now has a new lead teacher starting tomorrow. Beanie is not happy about it (understandably so)...we shall see!

I am really happy with my garden this year!

The last couple of years I have had some trouble with the flower bed in the front of the house. My go to flowers - Vincas - just did not do well for some reason - too much rain maybe?  As such, I was left with no plan and ended up putting in random flowers and most did not do too well either.

This year I spent many back breaking hours digging the bed and removing several inches of soil and replacing with bags of Miracle.Gro. I also took a chance with flowers I had never grown before.

I think it turned out really nice!

Enjoy!

Front yard - this was the problem area, but turned out good.

Other side of the flower bed. I love lavender and planed it in a pt. It is flourishing!

Front porch - I came up with this combination.

Some more pots, in front of the garage. The white box is Beanie's sand box

Back of the house

This is my old white kitchen sink. I had an idea to use it for flowers and herbs!

Back porch. Love this arrangement - can see it from the kitchen.

Other end of the porch.

Being an SMC, I am so used to doing everything myself that I forget how nice it is to have another person (grown up) in the house.

Beanie came home sick with a fever after a play date last night. We had gone over for dinner around 5:30pm. She started to complain of a headache just as we were leaving her friend's house at 8pm. It had been a very busy week for us -- swim (Tue), two after school play dates in succession (Wed/Thurs), evening with my parents (Fri), a dinner at my sis's (Sun) and then a play date with her friend yesterday. And of course, my kid hates to sleep, so I figured she was just tired. But I could feel she was warm as I put her in the car.

Sure enough when I took her temp it was close to 101 degrees. I gave her some Ibuprofen and she dozed off at 9pm only to wake at 9:30pm feeling better and then stayed up until 10:30pm (!) by which time I could barely keep my eyes open. I have been very tired this entire weekend.

Her fever seemed better during the night, but then at 5:30am it spiked to 101.7 so she got some Tylenol. I took the day off from work today, which was nice since it takes the pressure off having to work, and have a sick kid at home who needs attention. I made an appt with the pediatrician for 2:30pm, since at one point she mentioned it hurt when she went to the bathroom, so I wanted to make sure it was not a  UTI.

Around 12pm my Dad came over so I could go to to the grocery store to get some jello, bananas and Popsicle.  I was really hungry since I ate dinner very early the night before and had a very small breakfast, so I grabbed one of those Boost drinks and swigged down half the bottle before getting in the car.

I felt a bit nauseous while I was at the store and after coming back I felt very woozy and ended up throwing up. My poor Dad was not sure what to do given he was going to get lunch for my Mom. Anyway he left and I lay on the couch for a bit and asked Beanie get me a banana.  I did not want to be waking around all woozy,  The banana helped a lot, so by the time my Dad was back with a sandwich I was better. The sandwich helped too, I think my stomach was very empty and the quick drink did not help and caused the nausea.

My Dad very kindly came with us to the Dr, though I was fine enough to drive by then. Beanie does not have strep, and they sent in a culture. Most likely it is a viral. She sometimes gets a 1-2 day fever, but I am glad I went in.

Tonight my Mom is sleeping at our place, which brings me to the title of the post. It is SO NICE having another adult in the house. For example, I could leave the kitchen in a mess after dinner and get Beanie ready for bed. My Mom read her books, while I went downstairs to clean up, eat some fruit and watch TV.

What luxury!

I bet most 2-parent households don't think twice about such things, but I just realized how having a second pair of hands makes life it so much easier!

Right now my Mom is asleep in the guest bedroom with Beanie (who is convinced I have some "throw up bug" which she does not want to get - lol).

So I get to sleep in my bed - ALONE!  

Beanie is doing better. She has not had fever since about noon and her last dose of medicine. I am hoping it was just a viral...she will stay home tomorrow though.

Spring has been very busy for us.

In addition to the usual Spring activities, such as, getting the garden/pots planted and doing the "spring cleaning" that tends to strike me with fervor every March, Beanie began swim lessons every Tue/Thurs starting in early April, and continued in May.

During the weekends, we have been doing a bunch of cool trips/activities, so here goes.

1. Spring Break to the beach

Fun at the beach!

2. Easter Egg hunt

Egg hunt by the City

Egg hunt at the church

3. Earth Day celebrations

Working with a vendor to make a flower from recycled materials

Working with a vendor to glue bottle caps to make a tree collage

4. Strawberry picking

Strawberry picking 2017!

Strawberry pie, made with her BFF's Mom!

5. Trip to Zoo with her BFF



 6. Day out with Thomas!
I have been wanting to do it for years, but figured Beanie was too small. Coincidentally I was doing some googling a few weeks back and I saw one pop-up a couple of hours drive away. I decided to take her and my parents for a day trip. We had a blast!

Waiting in line to meet Sir Topham Hatt

Here comes Thomas!

Feeding a hungry goat at the petting zoo!

Watching a Thomas cartoon on a big screen!

7. Touch A Truck event organized by the city

Enjoying a nice cream to cool down.

Its been a fun couple of months. Its going to be pouring rain tomorrow, so we plan to stay home.

Mommy needs rest!

We had a fun Easter this year.

On Saturday, we attended an Easter egg hunt organized by the city. I was very keen to take her this year, since last year we missed it because it was the same day as Beanie's birthday party. 

We met up with her best friend, Alex, and his family. The egg hunt was supposed to begin at 10am, so we reached right on time. I was worried about parking, but the place was not very busy.

Well, turns out the first age group was to start at 11:15am, and Beanie's group (3-4yr olds) was at 11:30!!!!

Ugh, we had an hour and a half to pass!

Luckily there were fire trucks and a bouncy house, so we passed the time waiting in line and doing some of those activities. Beanie and her friend had a great time, of course, keeping busy with each other, while they waited.

The hunt was organized by age as I mentioned and they had marked off the areas by colored ribbon. It was a big area per group with lots of eggs on the ground (pine-straw). It was quite something for all the parents to keep the kids behind the ribbon, they were so eager to get started, it was quite hilarious.

Finally it was time, and Beanie went off like a shot She was very single minded in her quest, not getting distracted and running off into the distance with me trying to keep up (while taking a video) and trying to not knock down any kids along the way.

She got a full basket, and eagerly opened them, only to find that all the candy was stuff she does not eat (eg Skit.tles and Star.bursts). I was a bit disappointed too since I was excepting some small chocolates at least. Well she ate a star.burst and a Twizzlers, and then we said bye to her friends and wrapped up the day. After that we went to lunch and to the pet store.

The next day - Easter - we were invited by a new neighbor up the street to an egg hunt and service at their church. Turns out the lady is the pastor - how cool is that. Beanie has been curious about churches, and I thought this would be a great time to introduce her to a church service. Their little girl is 6 mos younger to Beanie and will be attending the same elementary school, so I am eager to cultivate a friendship.

That morning, Beanie was thrilled to find that the Easter bunny had left her a gift. She got a watering can, two gardening gloves, a kids Jazz CD, bubbles, a kiddie nail polish (she has been asking for it for months) and a chocolate bunny! 

She was so happy!


The church egg hunt was at 10am, there were about 8 kids and it was pretty quick. Again Beanie filled her bucket and again she got Star.burts and Ski.ttles :-(

The service was nice. Beanie behaved as well as a 4 year old can for an hour. It was funny because she kept calling it a "show" - so cute !

We went out to lunch later and then back home for a quiet rest of the day - phew!

Last week was Spring break.

Beanie attends a Montessori school, however, they do follow the local school calendar for holidays and breaks, other than summer where her school only closes for 2 weeks.

Last year I was very late in planning for spring break. We did travel but it all quite last minute and I paid a pretty packet for the hotel.  Lesson learned! So, last Oct I was foresighted enough to book a hotel for this year's break. We decided to go to FL, given Beanie loves the beach and our Atlantic beach experience last year was not very great, due to it being cold and gray.

It is a 5 1/2 hour drive to the closest FL beach, so with stops were were looking at about 7 1/2 hrs. I borrowed a DVD player from a friend which helped keep Beanie busy during the drive.

We left home at about 10 am on Tue, stopped for a nice lunch about 2 hrs into the drive, and then  drove the rest of the way with one rest stop. The drive was really nice, and quite relaxing since the route we took was fairly rural with very pretty countryside and not much traffic. We checked in about 5pm and immediately changed and went to the beach which was about 10 min away.

We found good beach parking with showers and restrooms. The beach was not too crowded since it was later in the day. Beanie had a blast paying in the sand. There were double red flags so we could not even touch the water - too rough with riptides :-(

Then we came back to the hotel where Beanie wanted to dip her feet in the hot tub, finally we went for dinner. It was late almost 9pm, and Beanie was exhausted.  We all slept really well that night!

Next day was supposed to be stormy. It was gray and dull but no rain in the AM, so after breakfast Beanie enjoyed playing in the hotel pool for an hour or so. They had a one foot pool for toddlers which was perfect for her. She could play and I did not have to worry about older kids jumping and I did not have to get in the water with her. She had a blast!  Later, we went to a local outlet mall which was a bit of a letdown, so we came back, picked up pizza and got to the hotel just before the rain/wind arrived. That evening the weather improved and Beanie was back at the pool. She made friends with a little girl and after playing for a while, we got cleaned up and went to dinner. There was a nice pavilion with restaurants, boutiques, etc within walking distance of the hotel.

The last day the weather was sunny, but a bit cool. We spent the morning at a nearby waterfront wharf/village. It was really fun - it had a playground, an outdoor carousal (Beanie was beyond thrilled), restaurant and lots of activities for older kids, such as, zip lining, etc. We hung there for the morning, had lunch and headed back. Later in the afternoon we went back to the beach. This time we saw one red flag and one purple, which meant we could go in the water up to our knees but needed to look out for jelly fish, or as Beanie called them sea creatures (lol).  We were finally able to go in the water - it would have been awful if we went all that way and had not been able to!

Beanie played and we built sand castles and had a blast. She is really good about going up to kids and asking to play with them. Being an only child she seeks out their kids and I am so proud how she is confident to go up to older kids too, as in 7-8 year old. There was another girl about 6 yrs old playing by herself so soon Beanie latched on to her. The other kids was happy to have someone to play with, so it was nice. I chatted with that girls Mom and they were from our state too.

After the beach we headed back to the hotel, played in the pool a bit. Cleaned up and went to dinner.

Next morning (Fri) after breakfast we headed back home.

It was a nice break for us all (my parents came too!). Beanie had a blast and got lots of treats and over indulged on everything - that is what vacations are for after all :-)

Now we are back home and back to school/work.

My darling Beanie,

Today you turn four years old!

Time is flying by and now when I look at you, I no longer see the baby or toddler, but a bright, curious and independent little girl. You are happy, smiling and always ready for fun!


You enjoy playing "pretend" - whether it is a pretend classroom where you are the teacher, or family where you are the Mommy, or other games such as taking a trip, or staying at a hotel, or going to a restaurant. All your games center around activities we have done and it allows you to express yourself.

Your language skills are excellent, and at four year old, we have regular conversations. You routinely use big words and I am always impressed at how well you can express yourself. Yesterday at a friend's birthday party you told me that having their dog around you made you "feel uncomfortable". That is a big word!

You love babies. You have many baby dolls but you keep telling me that one day you want to be a Mommy and have a real baby. You make Mommy laugh when you ask me if I will help you take care of the baby since you cannot cook :-)

You are sweet and loving! For example, when Mommy had a cold this week you asked me how I was feeling, and kept an orange out for me on the kitchen counter, so I could eat it and feel better. You enjoy helping around the house and love to have things neat and tidy. You never complain about picking up your toys and do so without much fuss.

You are creative. You enjoy coloring and art work. You like doing your own crafts, where you will cut paper and make a collage, or draw a picture. You drawings are getting better and now when you draw people you put in details such as hair, eyes, fingers. You love sidewalk chalk and you cannot wait for the weather to warm up so we can spend lots of time outdoors coloring.

You love food and enjoy eating. Even your teaches tell me that "Beanie loves her food!". For school lunch you like to take PBJ  on wheat bread, cucumbers or carrots, and fruit. You sometimes take a banana too. You love fruit and always have it for lunch, evening snack and dinner. You particularly like fruit cups where Mommy cuts up different fruits. You like to eat grapes, strawberries ( your most fav), blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, orange, mango, cantaloupe and watermelon. You have recently started enjoying pineapple, too. You don't like apples too much, but will eat pears if Grammy cuts them up for you. You are still enjoying milk but you don't drink as much anymore.

For food, you will eat fish sticks that Mommy cooks or BBQ chicken, and tacos. But you generally don't like meat much. For, vegetables you like grilled zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower cooled a special way, cucumbers, celery (!), carrots and corn. You will eat spinach sometimes. You don't like peas or beans any more. This year we will try to eat some different veggies and maybe you may find something new you like!

Your latest thing is dressing yourself. You love picking out your own clothes and putting together "outfits". I love your sense of style! You put together things Mommy would not think of, and it looks really nice!!  Every morning you wake up and want to wear something "cute"! Now when we go shopping Mommy makes sure you like what I am buying for you, so you will wear it.

You are enjoying dance class. You teachers say that you listen very well. You will be starting swimming classes next week!

You are now big enough to play games. You got a fun Pepp.a P.ig game for your birthday party that we have been enjoying. You also got Chu,tes and L.adders and we will play that soon.

You have a great sense of humor and enjoy making up funny stories - or jokes. It makes Mummy laugh!

You enjoy going out on weekends with Mommy. You wake up and ask me  "so what fun things are we doing today?" You no longer nap in the afternoon. That allows us to stay out most of the day. We go to the library, parks/playground, get lunch, go to stores, etc.

Your favorite restaurant is Pan.era B.read where you like to get your "usual" - grilled cheese sandwich and yogurt. You also like Tac.o Bells (yes, you add the "s" at the end), and a few BBQ places where you get Mc n Cheese.

Your favorite stores are Tar.get, G.ap and the "smelly store" (aka Bath. n B.ody!).  You like going to Wal.Mart to run errands, since it has the small carousel that you can put a coin in and go around. You love that.

You still love going to the big mall to sit on the carousel. We do that every other month and you get to go THREE times. Lucky you!

You love playgrounds and enjoy the slides. You are now sitting on the big swings - no more baby swings - yay!!

You have a lot of friends in school. Your best friends in school are Alex and Josh. You like to play with the boys. You sometimes complain that they are rough, but you are learning to say No and to walk away if they get too rough. Mommy is  encouraging you to play with some of the girls as well. You get invited to lots of parties!

You usually listen to Mommy, but now that you are getting independent you are beginning to question authority and push boundaries.  This is your way of asserting yourself and is normal at your age. Mommy will need to learn to be better at setting rules so you understand what you can and cannot do. You are also now beginning to get timeouts for when you don't listen to Mommy.

While on one had you are getting big, sometimes Mommy can still see her little baby in you. Like the other day when we were playing a game, there was a noise outside and you leaped into Mommy's lap and clung to me like a baby lemur.

That is when I realize that while you are so much bigger than you were before, you are still little.


You had a early birthday on the 19th. You invited 12 friends and 9 were able to attend. It was at your favorite indoor playground. You got lots of presents and your friends enjoyed pizza and a Hell.o K.itty cake. Today, your 'actual' birthday, we went to a nice restaurant with Mommy, Grammy, Grandpa, and the rest of the family and you got even more presents!

 I love you, baby girl. You are the best decision I ever made in my life. Your hugs and kisses make everything better.

Have a  wonderful birthday!

As a teenager, I was really into astrology.

I remember purchasing an astrology book and pouring over it in great detail. Reading not just about my sun sign, Leo, but also about the best "love" combination, best "friend" combination, careers, etc. I marked the signs I felt would be my best love match, and ended up marrying one of the most incompatible ones.  Well, the fact that I am now divorced goes to show the astrology was correct.

Given all my interest, it isodd that I never paid much attention to Beanie's zodiac sign.  I guess I have been too busy to really focus on things like that.

Anyway, this weekend was very challenging.

Beanie has a cold so she has been grumpy in general. Add to that, she has decided she does not like wearing long sleeved anything and only wants to wear short sleeves (and shorts).

Um, okay, that was appropriate attire for a few days last week when we had unseasonably high temps, but today was 45 degrees and given she was unwell, it was not a good idea. As a result, the entire weekend was spent with her insisting she wants to wear short sleeves and shorts and me asking her to wear long ones. Now that she is almost 4, she can dress and undress herself so its quite a battle of wits - sigh!

Tonight after what seemed like an exhausting weekend, I googled her sun sign.  I know very odd that I did not know it off the top of my head, but surprise surprise she is an Aries!!

We are both "fire" signs!

I did some obsessive googling and yup...

Aries child is bright, happy, smart, stubborn, bossy, independent, dislikes authority, loves attention...sigh, she sounds just like me as a kid!

I can hear my Mom chuckling away.......

Let the fun begin!!

Its been a fun, albeit exhausting,  4 days!

I took Friday off work because I really needed a mental health day. Work has been very hectic and stressful - never ending issues and getting no support from key teams :-( Everything is much more difficult after our company got bought by a much bigger company, too much red tape and endless layers of personnel make even the most simple tasks into a much bigger deal. Anyway, I took the day off and did not look at my email - all day!  Instead, I booked a massage and did some tidying/organizing and took a nap -bliss!

So by Saturday, I was ready to go!

I have signed up Beanie for dance class again this year, Lets see how long her interest will last. We now go on Sat from 10-11am. I don't like that we have a scheduled activity on Saturday, which means getting up and out of the house by 9:45am, but we did good this week and were not rushing. After dance, we went to lunch and then to the dollar store to pick up some gift bags, and odds and ends. I decided this weekend to try eliminating Beanie's nap. She really resists it and ends up sleeping late at night since she is more rested.

Since we now had the whole afternoon to keep busy, after the dollar store we went to Tar.get and then I decided to surprise her with a trip to Pa.nera Brea.d to get a treat, and coffee for me!  We came home by 2pm and she spent the next 2 hours outside running around the lawn while I sat and watched. The kid has energy!

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to the park, played for an hour+ and then had a picnic lunch. We were ready to leave when when met some of her friends that we do play dates with, so we stayed back and she played for another 2 hours with them, including some time at the library.

Today I took her to another park where she cycled around the lake (.42 miles)  - twice!!  It was fun and at one point she was pedaling so fast I had to jog to keep up. Good exercise for me! We then went for lunch to a pizza place. After lunch we did our weekly groceries, and then drove to the pediatrician since Beanie had rash on the side of her mouth that I wanted looked at. I had been putting hydrocortisone but it was not helping much and I felt it was more a yeasty/fungal thing (due to a bad cold), but did not want to assume that without checking first. After the ped visit we went to Tar.ger (again!) and picked up the anti-fungal cream and then dinner at my parents.

So a very busy weekend!

The downside -- I am wiped out! And I am bummed that my Fit.nit died on me on Friday so I have not been able to count my steps this weekend!

The upside --  Beanie is out within 5 minutes of her head hitting the pillow. Usually it can take up to 45 min or more after lights out.

And the best part - hours upon hours of fun with my daughter!

Priceless!

Just a bit of levity ....

As we all know, toddlers can be v.e.r.y slow! They want to do things by themselves, and take their own sweet time getting it done.

Several months back I needed to get Beanie moving along quickly. We were going to bed and she was procrastinating. I decided to make it a game/race and I told her "whoever gets to the bed last is a goose!".

She jumped up with alacrity, ran past me, went upstairs and hollered with jubilation - "I be the goose, I BE the GOOSE!!!!".

I followed her upstairs and tried to explain that the first person is not the goose, its the second person who is the goose. But she was having none of it, as far as she cared the first person was the goose and apparently to a 3 year old, being the goose is a good thing!

A few days later my Mom was visiting and Beanie did the same thing. This time my Mom started to explain - I stopped my Mom and just shook my head and laughed and told her to let it be....lol.

So, now the first person to do anything in our house "be's the goose!"

And by the way, it works wonders.

I can get Beanie to do just about anything (e.g. get dressed, wear her shoes, etc) by saying "whoever does this first is the goose"...and I get the job done with happy screeches of "I be the goose! I be the goose"!...

...and everyone is happy!

BTW - in case you are wondering, she does know what a goose is since we have a cute stuffed toy goose we bough years ago from I.KEA :-)

Beanie is starting to write...I am SO excited!!!

She has always been very keen on seeing how her name is written and could recognize her first name initial pretty early on. She used to make pretend lists - scribbling on paper - as far back as a year ago and even my Mom (a teacher) was impressed at how well she held a pencil...all self taught, btw.

But today, without assistance, she wrote her name multiple times!

Its a long name - 7 letters - so its all the more amazing.

Yesterday she wrote MOM....I am so proud of her.

As I was writing this blog earlier, she was reading a book. Our new night time routine is that I read her a few stories, and then she "reads" a few books on her own. She knows the stories, of course, and talks about what she sees on the page. I want her to get the general idea of words and reading.  We have some of the early reading - Stage 1 - books and she enjoys those.

She can count to 20 and can write 1-10. She is also doing some math/ addition in her school. Her teacher says Beanie shows interest in "big children's work".

I don't push Beanie on learning her letters or numbers. One of my neighbors used to tell me she did flash cards with her toddler!  I don't want to do that.  I firmly believe this is the age for her to play and have fun and that learning will happen on its own.

And I am seeing it happen  ....

Of course, I do try be be creative in play to keep things interesting. For example, on NYE I played Scabble with my niece. Beanie was entranced. Now, some evenings we take out Scrabble and find alphabets and build words. Or sort the alphabets...and count how many we have of each. Its fun, she enjoys it - and so do I!!

I am gloomy today.

The prospect of 4 years under, you know who, is worrisome. I watched the inauguration today. Not because I condone the rhetoric of our new Pre.sident and wanted to celebrate him, but because I wanted to watch and savor the last moments in office of our last President, and honor the office itself.

All I kept thinking throughout was -- how did we go from a competent, intelligent, calm, poised, emphatic leader, to one who is so divisive and boastful.

I watched Pres O's farewell speech last week and even the commentators were wistful that we will not hear such oratory for the next 4 years. Coz lets face it, we wont!

I did feel that DJT was somewhat subdued today and seemed to be a bit more Presidential. His speech was pretty awful (all doom and gloom) but I did see a glimmer of hope when he called out HRC during the lunch and thanked her for attending. I thought that was nice...mending fences...

But my hope was short lived because when I tuned in later, at the ball tonight, he was back to being boastful and calling out his "haters"...ugh. I was done at that point.

I guess, we can now prepare to get outlandish early morning tweets from the POT.US account.

I have my hopes pinned on his daughter who seems to have influence and appears to be concerned about things that matter to me, such as climate change and childcare.

And thank goodness for SN.L!