A Trip to the Doctor’s

Ms. Kaz has a genetic blood clotting disorder. Don’t ask me what it is called. She has the 25 letter name of it memorized, I don’t. I just need to remind her to take her aspirin before long trips.

Because she has this disorder, our pediatrician recommended our daughter get tested for this. Which, of course, means having blood drawn.

Little did we know, it meant having blood drawn from both arms.

Greg, over at DaddyTypes, has a post up regarding a study that (duh) kids don’t like needles, and trips to the hospital that involve needles raise anxiety levels in kids.

Well, I gotta say, our 27 month old daughter was a brave little soldier, and did a great job. At least, according to my wife. I didn’t go. And I’m glad. I don’t like blood. When my daughter banged her chin and bit her tongue a couple weeks ago, I even struggled with that blood.

Of course, they did put some local anesthetic cream on her arm, which probably helped a bit. That, and probably playing “doctorin’” with us and giving and getting pretend shots.

Anyhow, she got through it just fine. Got some bandaids with cartoon characters and a couple toys as prizes for being so brave.

Now, we just have to take her for a second round of tests.

Tuesday 7:00am-8:30pm (R)

Apparently, yesterday was a re-run. Or maybe a marathon of re-runs. Or maybe one of those flash-back, clip-laden shows with just a little new thrown in. Here’s a summary:

• Our daughter didn’t take a nap at daycare. Surprisingly, though, she was in a pretty good mood that night. However, she did…
• Wake up in the middle of early night, utilizing her “I’m scared” cry. This, and waking up for an hour in the middle of the night for no good reason, helped me get only about 4 1/2 hours of sleep. The other thing that helped me get so little sleep is…
• The cats decided to be pains in the butt starting at 4:30am this morning.

So that was my night. My day began with work calling me at 6:10am. Fortunately, I was able to redirect them to someone else.

Chapter I: In which our hero says, “uhm” to a famous author

I’m really not much of a reader of books. In fact, there is only one author I will read religiously – Terry Pratchett. And last night, I finally managed to catch one of his book tour stops.

It took place in a small bookstore here in Connecticut, and there probably weren’t more than 30 people there. There were several small children in the 2-3 age range, as well (TP: “I imagine most of the [young] kids are here because their parents are fans.”). Fortunately, it was a kids and young adults bookstore, because most of the younger set wouldn’t sit still for the talk and Q&A.

Although, I must say, despite throwing a fit for most of the drive there, my daughter was very well behaved and probably the quietest of the youngest set. Of course, she was probably the oldest of the youngest. I’m still proud of her.

We even practice her saying her name so he could sign a book to her, and practiced saying, “thank you!” But in the end, she wasn’t patient enough to wait in line and ran off to look at more books.

For those of you unfamiliar with Terry Pratchett, I’ll talk more after the jump.

Conversations with… : A train! A train! A train! A train!

Everytime I read Green Eggs and Ham, embellishing the story with sound effects:

Me: A train! A train! A train! A train! Would you, could you on a train? Whoo-whoo!
Daughter: Not hoo-hoo, daddy. Choo-choo!
Me: Oh, sorry.

An open letter to Johnson’s…

As I mentioned in a previous post, I sent an email off to Johnson’s regarding their intent to set up a portal/directory/cofee shop/whatever you wish to call it for mommybloggers and potential mommybloggers.

I haven’t heard back from them. Maybe they are still backlogged, I don’t know. But, I figured maybe I will go the open letter route, allow everyone to see what I wrote, agree with me, tell me I don’t know what I am talking about, pass it on to their friend who works at Johnson’s…

Or maybe there is a potential backer for a daddyblogger version of this same thing reading this right now. Perhaps a company that wishes to appeal to a target market of men who already have children (Trojan, I’m looking at you).

The (slightly edited) email after the jump…

Free to a good home: 2 f%$!* cats

Okay, not really, but if anyone has advice short of therapy (for them, not us) to give us on how to deal with our cats, please let us know.

Oh, they were wonderful cats before the baby arrived. But once we brought her into the house, they became monsters. Not to our daughter, but to us.

A chronological list of just the highlights, after the jump.

What the smart kids read…

Over at scienceblog, they asked a bunch of scientists what their favorite childrens books are. I suggest you go check some of them out, and buy some for your kids. Maybe they’ll grow up to be physists phisyssis scientists.

(link via boingboing)

Formula? Breast Milk? Something more pure and wholesome??

I’ve been around the daddyblogs enough to be familiar with the great formula/breast milk wars debates.

I just gotta say – if we have another child, I’m going with 7-up!

(This is usually the kind of thing I pass on the Greg @ daddytypes. I feel so … dirty)

(link via boingboing)

Riding out the storm…

“Boom boom boom, Mr. Brown is a wonder.
Boom boom boom, Mr. Brown makes thunder.”

Tonight’s storm warning was in effect until 8pm tonight. Of course, the storms started around 8:30, not long after my daughter’s bedtime. Oh, she’s slept through storms before, but tonight, the circumstances were a little different.

Because of the God-awful humidity we’ve been having, there is a window fan in her bedroom. This causes the window to not be shut completely, allowing additional light and noise to enter the room.

Then, the loudest clap of thunder I’ve heard in a long long while woke her up.

We took her in our bedroom to look out at the lightening lightning, and listen to the thunder and talk about them. We reassured her (about what, I’m not quite certain), and took her back in her room to sing and go night-night.

We even let her sleep with her new elephant (Horton, of hearing a Who fame).

8:56, and she’s crying again.

Let’s hope the storm passes quickly.

12:15am Update: Another storm arrives. Daughter cries a bit, but goes back to sleep. Mommy and daddy lay awake wondering if she’ll wake up again.

7:00am Update: Daughter spend all morning talking about the storms, and the loud thunder, and the flashing lights, and petting elephant, and telling him it is okay, it is just a storm, and how mommy and daddy talked about the storm… Oh, and an occasional, “stay away, thunder” thrown in.