Easter egg hunt

Much more fun than last year! A mobile kid makes all the difference. Here's Greta's debut as a member of whatever comes after the YouTube generation. I'll learn how to make some movies in the next few weeks and we'll have a little more fun with this video on the Web thing.

UPDATE: Need to figure out how to embed the video. Not sure why it doesn't work for some folks. In the meantime, here's a direct link. Mom & Ryan, I'm afraid it won't live up to the hype. It's just a :28 clip of Greta picking up a couple plastic eggs!

Blog silence

My humble apologies for not posting more this week. I criticize the cousins all the time for not providing daily updates and now I'm the one who deserves the criticism!

Greta had a good week except for a little scuffle on the playground. One of her daycare playmates accidentally pushed her at the top of a slide and she fell and hit her lip. Swelled a little but the daycare "incident report" indicates our tough little girl didn't even cry!

Big weekend planned with an Easter Egg Hunt Saturday at a friend's house and a breakfast with Aunt Kathy's mystery man on Sunday. Oh, plus the season's first soccer game on Sunday. We'll post pix from all.

More weekend photos

A few of my favorites, followed by a link to the full 57-photo slideshow.

Link to slideshow.

Weekend face

Lots more photos and more to say when I have time, but for now, here are five photos that show Greta's dominant face of the weekend. I've been living with this kid for almost two years, and I've never seen so much open-mouthed joy. Thanks, cousins, for such a wonderful weekend. I wish we ALL lived around the corner from each other.

And the doctor said...

The sausage put Greta over the edge this morning. Too fast a return to her normal diet. Having kept down goldfish crackers and american cheese yesterday evening, we were over confident and overzealous in giving her what she asked for this morning. But the good doctor completely understood her desire for "real food" after days of saltines and applesauce. Her little stomach just wasn't ready for it. Had it been only the bagel and juice, she probably would have been fine. Mommy and Daddy should have thought twice (and will next time). And he says she is not any more contagious than any other kid is at any time. So...I think we see how she does the rest of the day and tomorrow morning, and if she is in as good of health as he said she is, and in as good a mood as she displayed at the doctor's office, and if Rob's blogging hasn't scared the relatives, we'll drive a few hours south for a few hours of fun!

Alas, all's not well...

Greta threw up before lunch. We'll see if we can get her to a doctor today. That means she's vomited at least once per day since Monday. On the off chance that the cousins and grandparents are monitoring this, I think N.C. is probably a bad idea. And that makes me very sad. :-(

Random photo & health update

It looks like the bug has passed. Greta woke up happy this morning and much less clingy. We dropped her off at daycare around 930 and if she keeps all her food down and acts like her usual energetic self, we'll head south tomorrow morning en route to North Carolina. In the meantime, here's a photo snapped last weekend at the mall. Sanjaya Malakar, eat your heart out.

Health update

Greta's really lethargic today... dozing every couple hours. She kept down a small meal of saltines and peaches, so we remain hopeful that she'll be healthy to travel to North Carolina on Saturday. Hasn't had a fever since Wed. late morning. Carey may post some pictures later.

Sick day

I got home around 1 p.m. yesterday and Greta and I actually had a pretty nice afternoon while Mommy slept. We spent some time at the community playground then went on a 2-hour walk to the bank, down to the water, and home the long way along the Potomac riverfront. She had a handful of Ritz crackers and some water during the journey. It wasn't until we got back home and woke up Mommy that she puked most of it up. But I think she enjoyed getting out of the house. It was low tide, so we were able to walk down the rocks and stand on the semi-muddy riverbed to feed the seagulls.

After Greta emptied the contents of her stomach, she wanted to snuggle with Mommy and watch Elmo. Our household rule is no limit on TV time when you're sick, and Greta is already well aware of the rule. At one point Mommy mentioned her tummy hurt and Greta applied a sympathetic pat.

Today, the girls are home together. Both feeling better, but not good enough to work or go to school. Cousins, we should be 100% healthy for the weekend visit.

Sick kid

Greta puked up her cereal and breakfast bar this morning about 60 minutes after daycare dropoff, so Mommy came home with her. Then Mommy started throwing up. And now I'm home looking after them both. As I type, Greta is about 1 hour into her nap. We're hoping she keeps down the applesauce and Cheerios she ate before hitting the crib. Carey is on her way to the doctor, not for the stomach bug, but for her 21 (23?) week baby checkup. Which leaves me to blog the afternoon away. Carey has some good photos from a "TP" (that's toilet paper to those of you who never pulled that Halloween prank) incident, and I hope to get a good vomit shot from one or both of the girls later today. Until then, in pedialite we trust.

Diggin'

I swear I didn't teach her this, and of course, Carey's never done a crude thing in her life. So we blame the unwashed masses at daycare.

Grandma!

Greta was very excited for Grandma Pandillo's visit yesterday. We told her when she went down for her nap that Grandma might be here when she woke up. First thing she did upon waking was go to the guest room and ask, "Grandma?" No, honey, they're still on the road. Let's go to the bookstore and maybe they'll be here when we get back. 90 minutes later, back from Barnes & Noble, she bounds up the stairs and into the guest room. Grandma? No, probably around dinner time. I-95 is a bitch on Saturdays. Well, they made it in time for dinner and stuck around for a nice breakfast this morning with Aunt Kathy. As you can see from the photos, snapped in about 1 minute at the diner, she really likes her Grandma P.!

Fun-Doh

Poor Play-Doh. I'm sure they patented the name, but not the recipe. Greta has something called Fun-Doh. Same colors, same consistency, same vaguely salty smell. She made shapes with it yesterday using our cookie cutters.

Greta Loo-Who II

Anybody remember this photo from Dec.? Carey returned to the hairstyle today. It lasted for about an hour. Midway through the drive to daycare, Greta pulled it out, said "Here you go," and handed it to me in the front seat.

Jump Bunch

Every Tuesday from 11:30 - 12:00 I join Greta at the CDC for Jump Bunch at the gym. She and five other kids, ages 18-months to 3 years, enjoy a half hour of organized gym time. Greta hasn't mastered the "jump" part of Jump Bunch yet, but she tries very hard: she bends her knees and pushes up, but doesn't get her feet off the ground. It is very amusing to watch.

The teacher, Melissa, introduces new exercises each week, making exercise a fun experience. There are lots of high fives and applause, as everyone gives their best effort. Until today, I was impressed by how well Greta followed directions and tried to mimic the adults...unfortunately this morning she realized the disobedient boys who wanted to run around the gym carrying their red dots instead of standing on them were actually having a better time, and she decided to follow them whenever they bolted for the opposite end of the gym. She has the most devilish little grin...which unfortunately I couldn't capture on camera since I was trying to get three little kids back onto their dots!

Class ends with each child getting a purple handstamp, which smells like grapes. Greta makes sure Mommy gets a stamp, too. Then it's back to her classroom for naptime. Click here for pictures from the class we had today!

Satisfying Sunday

Greta had a great day yesterday. She enjoyed eating a banana-cinnamon bun-bacon breakfast, reading a new book from AK, washing dishes with Daddy, playing at the tot-lot pre-nap, and running around buddy Jay's playground post-nap. (I planned to post more pictures, but Blogger isn't cooperating...sorry!)

All the fresh air helped her crash hard at 7:30, but unfortunately it also gave her a slightly runny nose, which resulted in a lot of coughing during the night. I didn't have the heart to wake her up to take her to daycare, so I called in late to work today (a benefit I'm sure to miss six months from now!). She slept until almost 7:30, and I dropped her off at 8:00. She kept asking for Daddy this morning, but I think she understands he took the train to see Aunt Sara, Max and Esme. I told her she'd get to see him Wednesday morning, and she said "o-tay, Mommy!" Then tonight when I picked her up, she said "Daddy train, daddy coming." I told her "Not yet, but soon." I'm sure we'll go through the same routine tomorrow, so hurry home, Daddy!

Bad girl & her big girl bed

We outsmarted ourselves this weekend. Baby No. 2 is due in 16 weeks, so we thought it would be a good time for Greta to move from crib to toddler bed. Toys R Us had a sale, so we picked one up last weekend. Saturday we put it together. Greta was EXCITED! She climbed all over it while Mommy tried to work the allen wrench, she spoke longingly of her 3 1/2 year old friend's bed (Sadie bed!), she even played fort with Daddy under the partially dismantled crib.

Fast forward to nap time. 11:45, post lunch, baby girl is tired. She wants her blanket and she wants to rest. Upstairs we go. Coax her into the big girl bed, pull the blanket over her, put up the baby gate in her doorway. She lies still for about 3 minutes, then gets out of bed and starts exploring. Doesn't cry, doesn't call for us by name, just checks out every nook and cranny of her room. For 2 hours. Forgets she's tired. Her room looks like the FBI went through it.
First time she hadn't napped since birth.

The crib is back together in its rightful corner of the room. We'll try again in a month or so.

Pop quiz

Greta's stuffed animals and dolls are:

A) Praying
B) Sleeping
C) Dead

I'll post the answer Sunday morning.

Fresh paint

To those who read this blog just for the latest goofy Greta story, indulge me. We just had most of our rooms painted and the grandparents keep asking about the colors. So in the tradition of Flat Stanley, here's a glimpse of Greta with each new wall color.

Counter-clockwise -- that's the erstwhile dining room, now Greta's romper room. That darker green continues all the way down the stairs to the garage exit. The blue is only in our master bath. The light green starts below the kitchen counter in Greta's romper room (the wall facing the dark green wall, above), then continues throughout the dining and living room and all the way upstairs to the hallway. It doesn't seep into any of the bedrooms.

Sleeping with Mommy

In the first 21 months of Greta's life, she slept in our bed maybe three times. It's a figure we're particularly proud of, because we know plenty of parents who let their kids crawl into bed as soon as they express any displeasure in the crib. Of course, it has made for plenty of long nights where one of us (admittedly, usually Carey) is rocking Greta back to sleep or even falling asleep with her on the futon in her nursery.

Well, not anymore. Greta now prefers the "big bed" in our guest bedroom/office. She begins the night in her crib and sleeps quite soundly until some random time between 2-5 a.m. Then she calls for Mommy and they move together to the "big bed." We're telling ourselves that it's an interim stage between the crib and a "big girl bed" all her own. In fact, we bought a toddler bed last weekend and plan on assembling it this coming weekend. Between now and then, though, this is how I find my wife and daughter when Carey's alarm goes off at 6:15.

"Diaper do, diaper day"

That's what it sounds like to me anyway. Perhaps Carey can spell it more phonetically. It's a little saying she started using months ago. Jabberwocky, really... something akin to the French 'c est la vie,' but more sing-songy and child appropriate.

Well, wouldn't you know it, Greta was listening. This weekend at the most random moments -- sitting in her car seat and staring out the window, munching on a handful of Cheerios, chasing Jinx around the house -- she would simply belt out, "DIAPER-DO, DIAPER-DAY!" Then she'd change the cadence and the order -- "DIAPER-day, diaper-DO!" She wasn't looking for validation or anything. Just repeating what Mommy has said a hundred times.

This is why Daddy hasn't used a curse word in 22 months.

The photo is unrelated to the story. Greta chilling out watching Elmo learn about farm animals this morning.

Saturday frolic

Trying something new that my co-worker Will uses in his son's blog. Pretty cool, right? Click Get Your Own and you can be as cool as us.

Published!

For those of you who don't subscribe to Parenting magazine (motto: What Matters to Moms), we're overdue in sharing this: Greta was published in the March 2007 issue! It came out a few weeks ago, but I just got around to scanning it. Carey submitted the "Mom's Tip" in January, I think, and an editor followed up with her via e-mail and requested a photo of Greta! Our friend Dina in L.A. was the first to notice it. So kudos to her and read her daughter's blog, Ella's World (which badly needs an update, Dina, dear).

Greta's favorite landmark

No question, it's Iwo Jima, that glorious bronze tribute to the five Marines and Navy hospital corpsman who planted the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for the Japanese island in World War II. We drive by it daily, to and from daycare. Months ago Carey taught her to say "Jima!" and now she also says "flag" and "windy." It's a nice little marker during the drive and it lets us know she's awake in the backseat.

So yesterday Carey is leaving daycare with Greta in tow and they walk by a desk that has a display of tourist brochures. The same desk they've walked by for months. But this time Greta stops and says "Jima!" The other parents making their way to the exit turn and stare. Did that little girl just say "Iwo Jima?" Yes she did!

And of course, Greta had to show Daddy the brochure this morning. We perused it during our morning nosh of Fruit Loops. Forgive the dark cell phone images. There wasn't any daylight coming through the windows yet.