Seven Quick Takes

1. Yesterday, Meg and I both got our flu shots! Its all thanks to A’Dell (and twitter) – Meg had her 15 month checkup yesterday and flu shots hadn’t even crossed my mind. We were sitting in the room waiting for the doctor (always takes at least a half an hour) and A’Dell tweeted her daughter was getting a flu shot the next day. So when the doctor came, I asked if Meg could get one and he said sure! After the appointment, we went to Target and they had flu shots, too, so I got one. It was really nice to get them done without having to put forth much effort. I would have been really ticked if we’d gone to Target and been bombarded with flu shot advertising right after Meg had been at the doctor and I hadn’t even asked if she could get one. Target doesn’t do shots for kids that young, do they? Even if they do, I’m glad we got it at the doctor’s office.

2. Does your doctor’s office have developmental questionnaires like this?

I love them, because the doctor only keeps the summary (scoring) page, so we get to take the rest of the questionnaire home and I can keep it as a really easy way to have a record of what she can and cannot do at each age. I’m not likely to sit down and make a list of what she can do and I definitely wouldn’t think of everything on their list. I don’t know if we’ll ever look at them again, but they’re (unfortunately) as close to a baby book as she’s going to get, so at least its something!

3. Meg has started imitating everything we do. Its usually cute, but sometimes annoying. If I’m writing (like when I was filling in the questionnaire at the doctor’s office), she whines until she can write, too. At the doctor’s, I didn’t have anything else for her to write on, so she got quite upset. Once I was done, she scribbled all over the questionnaire (the part we got to keep - as you can see in the picture). She also wrote on her stomach, since she was undressed for the exam. I felt like a great mother when the doctor came in and saw scribbles all over her belly. What else are we going to do while waiting upwards of a half hour? I bring books and snacks, but they only last so long…

4. Meg has never been afraid of thunder (that I’ve noticed), but today we had the windows open and it started raining. There was a huge, loud clap of thunder and it really scared her. Now she bursts into tears every time it thunders, even if its quiet. I tried to help by showing her the kitty wasn’t afraid of the thunder. It sort of worked, because the cat hates little kids (all kids), so she runs away when she sees Meg coming. I held the kitty and let Meg pet her. Meg was so excited to be petting the cat, she didn’t notice the thunder at all. Of course, the second I let the cat go, she was scared again. Oh well.

5. So then we moved on to another distraction – the vacuum. I don’t know why she doesn’t like loud thunder, because she loves the loud vacuum. Too much. She likes to play “the vacuum is chasing me.” She darts in front of the vacuum while I’m using it, waits until it gets really close, then runs away. The closer her feet are to the vacuum, the more fun the game is (and the more terrifying it is for me – what if I actually run over her toes?) I guess its good she’s not afraid of the vacuum, but now I kind of am. I don’t like to vacuum when she’s around. It did work, though. She was too focused on her game to be scared of the thunder.

6. I have a hard time taking a shower when I’m home alone with Meg, because she loves water. She stands outside the shower screaming (if she could talk, she’d be saying “let me in!”) So a few months ago, I started having her get in with me whenever I wanted to take a shower. It works great. Its so much easier than giving her a bath and she gets to be in there longer. Since we’ve drilled it into her that you never stand in the bathtub, she mostly stays sitting, too. But now that she’s copying everything I do, she likes to stand up and shower, just like me. I know at some point she’s going to fall and conk her head, but I have a hard time convincing her she needs to sit when mommy is standing. So I spend most of the shower telling her to sit down. She sits when I tell her, then stands up again right away. Its driving me crazy.

7. Thomas is running a half marathon tomorrow, in a town about two hours away. My mother-in-law is coming to stay with Meg and Andrew and I are going to stay in a hotel close to the race. We’ll have about 20 kid-free hours! The only bummer is that I still have to get up before the crack of dawn, like I do EVERY SATURDAY, so we can go to the race. I’m not happy about this. But I am excited for time alone with my husband, even if most of it will be in the car or sleeping.