year-end pediatric update

well, we certainly hope it's the year end pediatric update ...

jack was back to see dr. dana today for a check on his pneumonia.

as a parent, one hears the "p" word (which actually sounds more like an "n" word ... those tricky greeks!) and one tends to freak out a bit. but, pneumonia is sort of a catchall word and in our case, it seems, it was a very mild case.

the good news is that his lungs today sound "crystal clear" according to the good doctor, and jack can stop using the inhaler unless he has a major coughing fit.

he still has a bit of a juicy cough from time to time, but she said that is nothing much to worry about and that may last a while yet. overall she seemed very enthusiastic and pleased with jack's miraculous recovery.

antibiotics and nebulized bronchodilators are apparently magical things. thank goodness for modern medicine!

his ears are clear (save for the firetruck and dump truck she saw in each, much to jack's amusement) ... and overall he's much, much improved.

her prognosis? a merry christmas for us!

god bless us every one!

lady with the baby

after two and-a-half years, we have pretty much settled into a morning routine. but, once in a while, our routine is out the window and our morning is thrown into chaos. this is usually when mommy has to be out the door pre-dawn for work. and such was the case on december 4th ...

at o'dark thirty, mommy headed to the white house to produce an interview with the president. all went well, and it was an interesting and very personal interview (if we do say so ourselves). you can watch it or you can just take our word for it.

as the seated portion of the interview wrapped up in the ground floor map room, we prepared to move on to a walking portion down the cross hall, one floor up, on the state floor.



as we began to assemble ourselves, the president turned to mommy and chuckled, "you're not pregnant, are you?" in response to his quip, mommy replied, "yes sir, just a little bit." he asked about her due date and mommy told him, "in about 7 weeks. the week after the inauguration, we'll inaugurate a new baby," and he seemed very pleased to hear it.

now all combobulated, we began to head up to the state floor. there is a smallish elevator and one very narrow set of stairs. mommy, following protocol, headed for the stairs and the president, first lady, respective press secretaries and the reporter headed into the elevator. suddenly, the president called out, "where's the lady with the baby?"

well, she was halfway up the staircase.

"tell her to get in!"

a lower-level aide relayed the message, to which mommy responded, "oh no, it's okay, i'm fine." the aide dutifully repeated, "oh, she says she's fine," only to be blasted by potus: "that's easy for you to say! have her get in."

well, when the president orders a command performance like that, there's no question -- you get in the elevator!

so mommy threaded her way (and her big belly) back down the narrow staircase, past the technicians behind her, all carrying cameras and equipment, to get into the elevator.

beat red with embarrassment, mommy thanked potus and flotus for the ride and they responded with polite inquires about jack (the prez declaring his name to be a good one) and the gender of the baby on-board (a.k.a. little miss herself).

the rest of the interview went off well, they wished us happy holidays, and we took a photo to commemorate the event.

think this is one for the baby book:

weekend update

just a quick update ... maybe we can get back in the swing of actually doing a weekend update on a monday!

saturday found mommy and daddy with tons of holiday errands and projects left to do and not enough time to do them. so nana came over and took jack to the mall for another round of playtime and breakfast.

the two had a great time at the mall, playing, eating and waving (from afar) at santa. looks like this year there will be no up-close-and-personal with st. nick. but jack does enjoy telling mommy and daddy what he will tell santa he wants, and he does delight in looking for santa's elf each morning.

still catching up from some sleepless nights, jack took an epic (for him) 2+ hour nap, which consumed most of the rest of the day.

on sunday jack and daddy enjoyed some qt while mommy headed off to yoga and yet more christmas errands, before arriving home for lunch.

another nap ensued, but this one was shorter. good thing, because we were invited to a par-tay!

mommy's high school friends try to get together over the holidays when everyone is in town, and this year we reuned at our pal scott's suburban manse, about 30 minutes from our house.

jack enjoyed playing with avery (8), jake (5), kate (3), jonah (2.5) and kay taylor (1) and a good time was had by all. with a brood like this, however, no pictures were taken. it was all we could do to keep everyone (and when we say "everyone," we mostly just mean jack) under control.

when we turned the gathering into a birthday party for jonah's mommy (a.k.a. julie from high school) later in the night, it seemed that the evening was complete.

jack declared, "that party was really fun!" and said his favorite part was the birthday candles on the cake. daddy said his favorite part was that they had the redskins game on. mommy's favorite part was the mini-hotdogs in phyllo. and of course seeing her old pals ... yeah, that too.

jack *did* say it was a "really fun" party, didn't he?

weekend update, sicko edition

as regular readers now know, most of last weekend was spent on the couch, with jack feeling
crummy, on account of the pneumonia and all.

but before he really went down for the count he had one last hurrah with to the mall for saturday morning breakfast with nana.

pediatric update again

it seems like only a week ago, dear reader, that we were reminding you of the archane rules of the blog where pediatric update trumps weekend update. and we told you not to worry ... it doesn't happen often and your weekend update shouldn't be delayed going forward.

we also expressed the hope that it would be a while until jack again saw doctor dana.

unfortunately, here we are, once again preempting our (day-late) weekend update to bring you a pediatric update.

jack has been sick since thursday night of last week. he's had a cough and runny nose, plus a fever. over the weekend, he seemed to get worse and by saturday afternoon was feeling very listless. he didn't want to go outside or run around ... he only wanted to snuggle on the couch and watch tv. very much unlike him.

he simply kept repeating, in a very plaintive voice, "i'm not feelin' well." and when you asked him how he was feeling? "not so well." it was truly pathetic.

we thought it was likely a virus which would run its course, but when he woke up with a fever again this morning, we decided it was time to head to the doctor.

diagnosis?

pneumonia.

she thinks it is likely that jack's illness started with a virus like rsv and developed into a viral pneumonia with wheezing and some labored breathing. he also has some fluid in his ears but so far it has not developed into an ear infection. small graces.

so, jack has been given an antibiotic and a nebulizer with inhaler and will be back to see doctor dana in a week to check his progress. he's also on a probiotic to try to avoid the digestive problems that frequently accompany antibiotics ... 'cause the last thing he needs is a nasty diaper rash on top of the pneumonia.

but, jack is still staying upbeat. he got to pick out a new racer car from doctor dana's "treasure chest" and he also got a sticker with curious george putting a star on a christmas tree (wonder if it made him think of his baby sister). as we waited for our prescriptions to be ready, he also enjoyed "shake" at starbucks.



hopefully he's on the mend and will be back to his old self very soon.

two and a half man

as we approach another weekend, we thought we'd close out the week with more details from last weekend.

sunday morning featured a trip to the mall to have jack's 30 month -- or 2 and a half year -- picture taken.

three weeks out from christmas this might seem like a kamikaze mission, but luckily mommy brought nana along to help manage the chaos.

jack was actually a trooper and did great ... posing as requested and smiling for the camera. unfortunately we're at the age where smiling on command results in a crazy, pained look but despite the "cheesiness" we ended up with several cute photos.

here is himself's official portrait:

we finished up our trip to the mall with the requisite bribes paid to jack ... a visit to starbucks for a vivanno smoothie (aka "shake") and a stop at ll bean to see the catfish pool.

not a half bad sunday morning!

o tannenbaum, part zwei

more christmas fun ... we finally got the tree decorated last night! all of our ornaments are not on, but since we are still a little wary of jack keeping his hands off the tree, we thought this year might be a time to give some of the more precious ornaments a bit of a break.

jack loved decorating the tree and his unbridled enthusiasm really made it fun for us as well.

we also finally broke out our "elf on the shelf" which we received a couple years ago from aunt amy. this is the first time jack has been able to understand the concept and we are working on choosing a name for our elf. so far "brown" and "pink' were some suggestions that jack had. yeah, the elf gets those names and the baby gets "george and the sticker" ... what gives?!?

jack took a few pictures of the tree, which we include here so you can see it from his point of view

"the tree"

"the lights"

and a few from ours:

o tannenbaum

we promised you a weekend update ... and while we don't have it ready in full, we thought we'd tell you about the part of our weekend which featured the annual purchase of our christmas tree.
in years past, we have simply gone to a nearby lot, picked out the nicest looking fraser fir and hurried back home. and usually we're much closer to christmas when we finally get the tree. this year we wanted to be on the early side ... but in these parts you don't want to be too early, lest you run afoul of the christmas tree laws ...

this year, harkening back to both of our childhoods, mommy and daddy packed up jack on saturday morning and headed out to our favorite farm to cut our own scotch pine.

despite the cold weather and the 30 minute drive, we were all in good spirits and enjoyed tromping around the fields to find our ideal tree.

when the perfect specimen (or, in this case, the "good enough" specimen) was located, we cut it down before dragging it back for needle shaking, netting and tying onto our car.

after the tree was secured, we also took some time up near the barns to visit the goats (the chickens, pigs and cow were inside because of the chilly air) and stop in the market for some hot apple cider and a 1/4 peck of the last apples of the season.

yes, it took longer ... took more labor ... and wasn't even much cheaper (especially when figuring in gas/mileage) -- but cutting down our tree this year definitely seemed worth it.

pediatric update

our long-time readers will remember that, according to the byzantine rules of llvj, pediatric updates trump weekend updates.

and because our check-ups almost always happen on mondays -- the day our doctor holds "early" appointments starting at 8:15 -- you may consider this our semi-annual preemption of the weekend update.

now, of course, astute readers may point out that given our recent posting history, delaying the weekend update is slightly more than a "semi-annual" event (it's more in semi-weekly territory at this point). but, in any case ...

today is the pediatric update.

and, as jennifer warnes and joe cocker sang, who knows what tomorrow brings ... perhaps a weekend update (that last part is not an original lyric, fyi). but no promises.

the overall report is a good one. jack is a healthy boy, developing normally. doctor dana was very pleased with him. she also stated, that in her professional medical opinion, jack is extremely cute. in mommy's professional maternal opinion, well duh ... don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows ...

anyway, the first order of business was the stats. height and weight. he "officially" weighs 29.5 pounds, which represents a gain of about 2.5 pounds from last time. this puts him at about 45th percentile for weight at his age.

height is a slightly more tricky ... and apparently more subjective ... measurement. jack's "official" height as of his 30 month appointment is 33 inches. those eagle-eyed readers among you may be thinking, "well, wait a moment ... at the last appointment in may, wasn't he 34.5" tall?" and you'd be thinking correctly and clearly.

mommy wasn't thinking clearly when they gave her this measurement, because otherwise she would have pointed out -- he *shrunk*!!!

after coming to this realization, and upon talking to a nurse later on, we have concluded that probably neither measurement was wholly accurate. 33 inches would put jack at a meager 3rd percentile on the growth chart for his age and simply comparing him to other boys in his class, this just doesn't seem right. plus, given his parentage, we expect him to be at least 7-feet tall by adulthood.

after the "measuring" (and we use this term loosely), the doctor came in to see us. jack was not so interested in her, or in her talking to mommy and daddy, so he headed to the treasure chest. doctor dana told him he could select one toy and he said he wanted to find a truck. sadly, no truck was found, but he did bring in about 9 racer cars, a helicopter, and multiple pairs of sunglasses. so much for choosing one. we did, however, only leave with one.

today, our discussion focused on three d's:

discipline

dentist

diapers

the short-takes (respectively)?

consistent, logical and positive

sometime in the next year

sometime in the next year

we agreed that the next six months may be quite challenging for jack and so we would not push him on potty training. plus, in mommy's opinion, when dealing with a newborn, changing a few jack diapers a day sounds much easier than cleaning up accidents, changing wet clothes and scrubbing out underpants.

mommy's proposed pediatric dentist was met by an enthusiastic recommendation by doctor dana and so we will probably make an appointment with him for next spring.

and, with discipline, she encouraged us to keep up with time-outs and 1-2-3 magic, expanding them as jack grows older and can better understand things like logical consequences. her take was: the good news/bad news is that jack is bright and very verbal. so, his emotions sometimes can't keep up with his brain, causing him a lot of frustration and anger, which we see him express. and, as with most things in child-rearing, this too shall pass ... (in about 18 years!)

to round out her recommendations, she gave us a green light on switching from whole milk to 2% (but no skim for our skinny minnie!), a red light on peanuts and peanut butter (we'll wait until he's 3), and a yellow light on switching from his crib to a "big boy bed." that one she advises doing at your own risk ... and having some way to gate him into his room. we're certainly not above the doorknob locks.

at the very end, jack got a flu shot and was as brave as could be expected. daddy hugged him as mommy dried his tears and the nurse put on a tweety bird bandage. both the injury and insult was soon forgotten.

as much as we love doctor dana, we hope that we won't see her again for a while ... at least when it comes to jack. she is, however, looking forward to meeting her new patient in just over 7 weeks!

name that baby

as the impending birth of our daughter (currently known as "ita") approaches, so do suggestions for names.

names are a tricky business because *everyone* seems to have an opinion.

in fact, just last night we received the following in the llvj emailbox:

Babies Zuma Nesta Rock and Bronx Mowgli, you're in the minority. Most parents abandoned unusual names for their children, opting instead for traditional names, according to a U.S. survey.

The top boy's name for the year remained Aiden, followed by Jayden, Ethan and Jacob with classic names like Matthew, Jack, Michael, Alexander, Daniel and William all featuring in a list of the top 50 most popular names.

The list, compiled from thousands of baby name entries on the specialist baby website Babycenter.com, found that Emma replaced Sophia as the top girl's name followed by Isabella and Olivia with Sarah, Elizabeth and Anna also popular.

With the United States consumed by politics all year, presidential names also made a return, such as Madison, Taylor, Kennedy for girls and Jackson and Tyler for boys.

Linda Murray, editor-in-chief of babycenter.com, said there was a clear trend for people to choose more serious, old fashioned, classic names, reflecting the tougher times.

"Times have changed and people are taking the world more seriously, affected by what is going on the world," said Murray.

"Even before the economic crisis we've had high gas and food prices all year and people have struggled. Our nation is at war. We have conflict in the world. It is a serious time in American life and it is affecting decisions about naming children."

When parents were asked in the online survey what they wanted a name to represent, the most important qualities for boys were strength, kindness and compassion compared to strength and individuality last year.

For girls it was kindness, compassion, intelligence and strength compared to femininity and individuality last year.

so it got us back to thinking about what we should name our little girl. we decided to again ask jack.

so far, in suggesting names, he has repeatedly favored one ...

jack.

but today he had a new idea ...

"george and the sticker"

we think that's all the first name. which would make her full name george and the sticker jennings mershon???

umm ... well ... it's certainly unique.

zuma nesta and bronx mowgli aint got nothing on that.

leaving

much of thanksgiving weekend, when not spent eating "feast" (as jack decided to call our thursday night repast and every leftover meal thereafter), was dedicated to doing a lot of work around the house ... not the least of which was raking up the remaining leaves for our final county leaf collection.

of course our resident "helper" was standing by to help daddy. sadly, his little rake from last season had broken, so he and mommy made an emergency trip to the hardware store for a new one.



and then ... the hijinks (err -- helping) began ...

i guess jack should have mentioned in his list that he was thankful for leaves ... and rakes.

thankfulness

taking a page from our friends at merrilly yours ... mommy decided to make a list of what jack said he was thankful for this year.

he was not prompted for any specific answers, mommy simply asked jack, "anything else?" here's what he said:

• my friends
• mommy
• daddy
• jack
• the baby
• grandad
• nana
• grandma
• grandpa
• megan
• kathy
• trash
• mailbox
• newspaper
• nature walk
• washington, dc
• trash trucks
• zoo

i agree ... i'm thankful for pretty much all of these list items as well.