Daphne Dreams

"Mommy, I had a dream about furry people and computers."
-Daphne

First Dental Visit

Today, Daphne & Lotus visited the dentist for the first time (which is horribly late because you're supposed to take them when their teeth first come in).

Lotus had her teeth cleaned and examined. It was pretty awesome! She was pretty awesome! She was very cooperative, sat in the examining chair and followed directions. I wish I had had my camera! No cavities!

Daphne was also very awesome. She actually had x-rays taken of her teeth. She loved that she had strawberry flavored paste. She was also cavity-free!

Lotus was a handful, though, when she wasn't sitting in the examining chair, and she kept telling me she "wanted to go home". When the dentist gave her stickers, she responded by saying, "Ah, stickies! Sank you! Sank you so muts!" Translated, this meant, "Ah, stickers! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

All in all, I think they were both very stoked about having their teeth cleaned.

Picnic!

Today we enjoyed ourselves outside by having a wonderful picnic in our front yard.



Daphne and Lotus enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches, crumble donuts, a berry cream cheese danish, and yogurt pretzels. Afterwards we went to the backyard, dug holes, watered the lawn and pulled out some old cement blocks that I had put up to surround our now defunct garden.

Red Ribbon Adventures and Illness

We went to Red Ribbon for lunch on Friday, just the girls and me. It was sort of nutty. I ordered them Sotanghon first, but they saw the Palabok of the people sitting next to us. We also enjoyed chicken empanadas. It was somewhat stressful, and I don't think I'm going to venture out to eat with all three girls in tow. Maybe when Lotus is a little older, it will be more enjoyable. The Palabok was tasty, though.

Nothing interesting has happened since the filming of that video. In fact, the baby has been sick. For the past three days, she could not sleep without being held. So, we've been holding her. The worst of it was on Sunday night. Emmanuel stayed up until 4 AM holding Hypatia. He was so delirious that when I asked him to give Hypatia to me, he just kept grunting and shaking his head. I think Emmanuel may be the most empathetic human being I know personally. He just couldn't stand seeing Hypatia in so much discomfort, so he actually insisted on holding her while she slept. I think he thought he'd be able to put her down, but she really was un-put-downable. Despite that, he just kept holding her. I wouldn't have been able to do it. Did I mention that Emmanuel has finals this week?

We went to the doctor yesterday morning. I really love the girls' doctor. He recommended that we just allow Hypatia's illness to take it's natural course, especially since there are no cold medicines that are approved for babies as young as 6 months. I love the girls' doctor. He is so awesome. He actually held a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.

I don't know what else to blog about. The house is messy. I have to stay home all day today because I'm anticipating the arrival of a package that needs to be signed for.

One is Healing, the Other is Falling Ill & Potty Training

Daphne woke up without a fever today, but she had a persistent cough. Lotus woke up slightly feverish. It will probably peak tomorrow (along with her crankiness) and subside within the following two days. Hopefully, Hypatia doesn't catch it.

Hypatia consumed another 3 ounces of pureed squash today at lunch. She's a very enthusiastic eater. I think it really amazes Emmanuel.

For the past few days, Lotus has been going around the house knicker-less to help her get in touch with her bladder and to help with her potty training. So far, so good. The past week, we hadn't had any accidents. Yes, a completely accident-free week! Almost unbelievable. I thought today would be a good day to take it to the next step--training undies. What was the first thing she did after I got her panties on? She shut herself in her room and pooped in them. Great. Great.

We had lunch at Kick Back Jack's. For the most part, it went smoothly, and my eggs in my Eggs Benedict were poached to perfection. Lotus wet herself, though (yes, I was audacious enough to venture out in public with her in training undies). Thankfully, her training undies absorbed most of the pee. Emmanuel dealt with that fiasco, so my Eggs Benedict experience went unmarred.

When we got home, I had Lotus go around naked from the waist down, just as she had been. Total fail. She had diarrhea (courtesy of her fever, no doubt) and let loose in her room. This is just great. I really hate diarrhea. Potty training was put on hold last time because of her incontrollable diarrhea. Totally not her fault. I really hate diarrhea.

Daphne has started taking showers by herself as of last night. She really enjoys them. She soaps herself up and everything. It is really quite remarkable, and I have a hard time believing she has actually started showering by herself!

Integration is the Name of the Game

I am happy to say that I have finally and successfully integrated all the kids' blogs into my one family blog at Joy in Family. I am also having Facebook automatically publish my blog posts into the "Notes" application. Hopefully, I'm able to keep my commitment about writing at least every other day.

If you check my archives on my blog (accessed by clicking on "others" on the left panel), my posts now date back to July 2004. I've been blogging on and off about motherhood for almost 6 years now. Lol, I wish I had been more thoughtful, deliberate and regular in my posting. Well, I'll try to be from now on!

Hypatia Crawling/Teething...Baby Books

I forgot to add that Hypatia is starting to crawl. She is also starting to teethe. I'm on the fence about whether I should get some Baltic Amber for her teething. I wanted to do something where I got one for each of my daughters and one for myself, too. They aren't too costly but buying 4 of them will be.

I was thinking about purchasing the necklaces from Amber Artisans. Does anyone have any experience with this company or with Baltic amber and its analgesic affects?

I am so ashamed of this, but I haven't started on any of my daughters' baby books. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise, and I'll have 3 marvelous, completed baby books documenting each of their first years by the end of this year?

Updates & a Commitment

Hypatia is now eating solids! I'm feeding her organic, frozen baby food. Of course, it is thawed when I feed it to her. I started her earlier this week. I can't believe how much she's able to eat! It reminds me of how I started Daphne on solids, and she still had her tongue-thrust reflex, so most of it would end up on her face and chest.

Lotus is so hilarious! She is so great at imaginative play. She approaches me telling me about her imaginary glass slipper which is on her foot. I pretend to steal her imaginary slipper, and she is totally outraged until I return her invisible shoe. I need to film this! Lotus is exactly 2 1/2 years old.

Daphne has a fever. She'd had it since yesterday. I kept her from school today, and she's improving quite steadily. I'm probably going to keep her from school tomorrow, too. If the fever isn't gone by Thursday, I'll have to take her to the doctor.

I'm committing to update this at least every other day!