bloogs blowing by

Check up

Friday was Tae's 5 year check up.  (I still can't quite believe that she's 5.  Gulp.)

Tae was acting really silly for mostof the check up, including while the doctor was asking her questions, and she kept yelling "Spinach!!"  Spinach!!" when the doctor was talking about eating healthy foods.  Incidentally, Tae only nibbles at spinach, if that.

She weighs in at a grand ole 33.5 pounds, and is 41.5 inches tall.  this puts her in the 7th and 9th percentiles respectively, which is a reasonable change from last year's 3rd and 7th.  Apparently she grew about 5 inches last year?  Craziness.

The other highlight of the visit was that Tae peed in a cup for the first time.  She thought it was very strange, and was giggling the whole time.  Haha.  Lucky me, I got to hold the cup for her. 

I had promised Tae that after her physical we would go to the zoo.  She was asking about it, because the last time we went, one of the gorillas freaked out and rushed the glass window we were standing in front of.  The night we were there was a free zoo night, and it was crowded.

This time, it was an overcast, cold day, so the zoo was, uh, not crowded at all.  Our local zoo is a nice small, manageable size.  We saw some animals.  We saw the gorillas being friendly and not freaking out.  We saw a lioin roar so loud that it freaked Tae out.  We saw flamingos, and tapirs, and a condor. 

We saw some not so excited things too, like a dead fish that Tae spoted in a fish tank.  It was floating upside down, and Tae told me that it looked sick.  She asked if its mommy would be sad.  She told me that it wasn't dead because its eyes were wide open. 

Like most dead things we see (roadkill mainly), Tae is fascinated, and I usually am trying to hold down my lunch.

It was a fun day.

A day at the dentist

Yesterday, I tookthe day off to take Tae for her semi-annual check up at the dentist. Tae told me bravely before the dentist that she was going to try not to cry. She cried the last two times we went, mostly because it was so new to her and because things like the spit-sucker thing were kids scary.

This time, she did very well. She's still so tiny that in order to scoot her head ip to the headspot on the dentist's chair, her calves are at the fold in the seat. Her dentist pits sunglasses on the patients so the lights won't shine in her eyes.

Unfortunately, we have one cavity. I guess we're going to start flossing. The hygebist gave us Disney princess kid's flossers. I almost considered giving in and buying these to use at home, but luckily, they were nowhere to be found at our local target.

The good news is that Tae's bite seems to be correecting itself. She used to have sort of half an underbite, and as a result her front teeth have been chipped away because she kind of grinds her teeth to make them sit evenly.

But apparently, now she has ground her teeth down so much that she is biting evenly. This is a huge relief because at one point the dentist had talked about putting something in her mouth to help correct her bite. I wasn't looking forward to trying to explain orthodontia to my 4 year old. Phew.

Science is cool

Science Experiments!
Uploaded by eliaday

So.  Here, at long last are the results of our science experiment.

The egg was all rubbery and bouncy on the outside - the shell was gone, and the egg membrane thingy was holding it all togther.  Science is so cool.

I cut the egg in half, and the inside spilled out.  The inside was totally normal, and not stinky at all.  Crazy.  Science is cool.

Mama's little helper

Sometimes, I get frustrated trying to deal with Tae's unique brand of logic.  But other times, her logic is actually helpful.

Yesterday morning, Tae realized that we had a book from school that we needed to bring back.  I was making breakfast at the time, so I told her to go put the book by the door so we'd remember to bring it with us to school.  When we arrived at school, she asked me if I had the book.

I told her I had forgotten the book because we were rushing out of the house.

"No, Mommy," she says, "YOU have the book.  I put it in your purple bag."

I peaked inside my purple bag, and there was the book tucked inside. 

The part in between breakfast and rushing out the door was filled with our daily argument about why she has to get dressed and why she has to go to school and why I have to go to work.  Why, why, why.

Why can't she be helpful more of the time?

She makes me proud

We were at a coffee shop in Davis Square this weekend, and a slightly scruff older gentleman came up to Tae and said, "Are you running for president?  Because I'd vote for you for president."

Tae, amazingly, held her ground, "Do you know who I'm going to vote for?  Barack Obama."

Coffee house man, "Wow, you say that better than he does.  Are you sure you don't want to be president?"

Tae, "No, I'm going to be a mommy when I grow up."

To his credit, scruffy coffee house man told Tae that she could be a mommy and be president.  I followed up by telling her that she had to wait until she was 40.  Which basically means that I need to be retired in 36 years so I can take care of her babies while she goes off and works in a museum, writes books, *and* serves as president. 

Tae also has told me that she thinks Barack Obama will be the best president because he's a daddy.  I did the right thing and told her that John McCain is also a daddy.  Oh well.  I should just tell her that John McCain doesn't know how to text or send emails.  She'll probably say, "DUH.  Barack Obama *is* the best."

Status update

I took a half day off from work today to take Tae to her annual physical.

Minus the FOUR shots Tae received (the nurse and doctor double teamed Tae and simultaneously gave her shots on the shoulder. Twice.), the visit was good.

And we have growth!!

Tae is 37.5 inches tall and weighs 28 pounds. Her pediatrician is officially not worried about Tae's weight anymore - her BMI is 14, which is in the 10th percentile. She's still in the 7th and 3rd percentiles for height and weight respectively, but these are all increases since last year. I was never really concerned about Tae's weight; but it is a relief to know that her doctor is not longer concerned.

It was a little funny- the doctor totally cracked up over Tae's faces while she was examining Tae's throat. Tae had her eyes squeezed shut and was just being herself.

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying fall in New England. It was fun spending a weekday afternoon out with my daughter. I feel refreshed.

Quotable Tae

Q:  "Mommy, why did you pack a napkin in my lunch?"
A:  (not said outloud) Because we ran out of paper towels.

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At the mall over the weekend, we walked by a photo of a swimmer.

Tae:  "That's Michael!"
me:  "Michael... Phelps?"
Tae:  "Yes!  Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals.  And we have really big feet."

(I found out later that the really big feet part came from an ad before the Michael Phelps clip that the kids watched at school.)

Oy vey.

I swear, this is a direct quote of what the director of Tae's school said to me this afternoon when I came to pick her up:

"Eliaday, I made your daughter cry today.  But you have to hear why.  She snuck her purse to her cot at nap time.  And I found her sitting cross-legged chatting away on her cell phone.  I had to tell her to put it away until the other kids fell asleep.  She looked more like 13 than 3.  I had to keep myself from cracking up.  But she can't talk on the phone during nap time."

Tae overheard the end of the conversation and said, "I was PRETEND talking!!  And I was talking quietly!!"  (on a pretend cell phone.)

I suggested that maybe she write a letter instead.

Or that if she's going to pretend to be on the phone, that she at least pretend to be listening to the dial-a-story at the public library.

We have recently rediscovered dial-a-story (I remember these from when I was little). At the Boston Public Library, there is a Cantonese dial-a-story that we call in to.  Neither of us actually understand the story, but it's fun anyway. 

Today, I tried to explain to Tae why sending mail FOR REAL involves putting a real stamp on the envelope so the postal carrier can bring the mail to the recipient.  First Tae asked me, "Why didn't you give me a real stamp before?"  and then she got really upset about the concept of the postal carrier bringing the mail instead of her personally delivering the mail.  All the letters that she writes me when I'm gone get personally delivered to me by Tae.  I guess the idea of a third party (ie the USPS) making the delivery was kind of upsetting to her.  Either that or she was just overtired... well, because she was talking on her pretend cell phone when she was supposed to be napping.

I have a new approach to things that I'm doing as a parent now.  It's called "always tell the truth."

Example 1:  When Tae asked tonight why she couldn't go outside even though it was still light out, I told her that because she didn't nap today, she had to go to bed early so she could get enough rest.  Yesterday, she got to stay up later, and had had a nap during the afternoon.

Example 2:  Tae asked why someone was smoking in a car that pulled up next to us during our car ride home.  She told me that smoking was bad for the earth, and asked why that person was smoking if it's bad for the earth.  I replied, "Some people do things that are bad for the earth.  Everyone gets to make their own choices and sometimes good people make bad choices.  You can make your own choices about what you want to do."

I've decided that the trouble I get in to by giving Tae misleading stories is worse than the trouble that I get in to from telling the truth.  We'll see how far this gets me.

big kid thoughts

over the past week or so, i've been watching tae through a different lens - through the lens of her being a BIG KID, not a baby.  apparently, she is such a big kid that she goes to the bathroom on the big potty without a kiddie seat on top of it.  she is such a big kid that she tries to help our two year old neighbor cross the street.  she is such a big kid that she cuts her pancakes herself, with a fork in her left hand and her knife in her right, and then switches her fork back to her right hand to eat the pancake.

tonight, as i was snuggling with her at bedtime, she said to me, "let's dream about hearts so we love each other."

SNIFF.

of course, on the flip side, this also means that tae is big enough to have some big kid thoughts that aren't so warm and fuzzy.  we have been reading "the man who walked between the towers" about 3 or 4 times a day for the past week.  this book (which is beautiful!) is about phillipe petit who walked on a tightrope between the two towers of the world trade center in 1974.

tae, being tae, asked me if i could take her there one day.  (she realized that the book was set in NYC, with the statues of liberty and bridges.)  i told her that i couldn't because the buildings weren't there any more.  (why?)  i had to explain to her that they fell because of a fire.  (why?)
  she asked me why they built the buildings if they fell down.  she asked me what was there now. 

i was a little unprepared for all of this. 

then she told me that she thought the buildings were still there, behind the clouds.

it's a little sad to think that this is the world that tae is growing up in.  one in which it is not strange to her to take her shoes off when she goes through airport security. 

SNIFF.

to sleep, to dream...

all of a sudden, tae has figured out to put herself to sleep.  i thought that maybe she was sick or something when she napped twice at school last week.  this hadn't happened since the last time she was sick, and before that, i don't think it ever happened.

but, it turns out, that after 3 1/2 years of life, my daughter has figured out how to put herself to sleep. 

tonight, we were talking about our routines, what we would be doing tomorrow... and tae started to talk about all of the little things... she was going to take a bath, brush her teeth, put on her pajamas, and then i'd read her a story.  she asked me if i was going to sleep with her, and i told her that i wasn't.  that i needed to shower and clean up.  and that when she woke up in the middle of the night, she could come into my room, and we'd snuggle in my bed.  i think for tae, and all her ocd-ness, knowing what was going to happen helped her feel comfortable about going to sleep.

and then, after reading one bed time book, tae looked at me and said, "mommy, go shower."  and i left.  and she fell asleep by herself.  in her room.  for like the first time ever.

and i went and took a nice long hot shower.  woo-hoo!!