It's never too early to learn...

...bad habits. This afternoon Anna and I went to the grocery store. On the way home, we were waiting for the bus and eating a cheese danish. Naturally we were both thirsty after that but I had forgotten my water. Fortunately for Anna, I had just bought her some milk. So I opened it and had her drink out of the carton. Oddly she took to it like a natural. I would worry but I have been known to drink out of the carton myself. I guess we will both be trying to break the habit together.

Penn Relays

On Friday we went to the Penn Relays. This is a huge three day track meet that Penn hosts every year. It's different from a normal meet in that they are all relay races which are way more exciting than a regular race. I don't know why but there is something about four people working together in one race that really ups the excitement. There are schools from all over (including Jamaica) and includes high schools, colleges and professional runners. There were even some Special Olympics runners. According to the Penn website, it is "the oldest and largest relay carnival".

We have wanted to go to this meet every year we have been here. Unfortunately, it's at possibly the worst time of year for Jason, the end when school gets crazy busy. Fortunately for this year, Jason's schedule is a little bit lighter and we were able to go. Plus, on Thursday and Friday Penn students get in free! I got in free too because I have a Penn spouse card. It's like being a student again without having to worry about all those pesky classes.

So we went on Friday afternoon. The weather was warm and sunny without being too hot (the really hot weather came on Saturday, 90 degrees!) and I managed to sneak in my water bottle without dumping it out. We weren't sure where we wanted to sit but decided on the shady side of the track. Even though it was on the far side from the finish line, it was totally worth it.

It was a little bit strange being at a meet where not only do I not know the runners but I don't even really know the teams. But I still managed to get excited when one runner overtook another or tried to but the one in front stayed in front. We got there at the end of the college women's 4x1500 (four people each run 1500 meters or about a mile). Then there were the 4x200s (men's and women's college) and some high school 4x100s. For the last ones we were sitting surrounded by people cheering for the runners and it got really exciting as people stood up and got all into it.

Anna seemed to have fun considering it took place during her nap and she has skipped her morning nap that day. Mostly she played on the bleachers and with the people sitting around us. I don't think she realized there was anything interesting on the track. I had fun but, as often happens with track meets, felt like I had been there a long time but hadn't seem much. There is a lot of down time between races and while they weren't wasting any time, there was still a fair amount of just sitting around.

We left sooner than I probably would have on my own but it was probably a good thing we did. Once we left, we rediscovered how exhausting it can be to just sit outside in the sun and heat. We were all just a little bit cranky until we got home, cooled down and had dinner.

Test Results

On Tuesday we went in to get Anna's blood drawn to test her lead level and get a CBC (complete blood count - includes counting amounts of red blood cells, white blood cells (amounts and kinds) and platelets along with relative percentages in the blood). And I thought shots were bad. She started crying while the woman was looking for her vein. Fortunately she had a good one and the phlebotomost got it on the first try. After we were done I mentioned something about Anna not doing a very good job but the phlebotomost pointed out that she did quite well because she didn't move. I guess at this age, that's all you can ask for.

Then on Thursday, we got a call from Anna's pediatrician. Her lead level was fine, below three. I was a tiny bit concerned because we live in an older apartment. But not to much because they did paint right before we moved in and Anna isn't really one to chew on the walls and the window sills are too high for her. There was a problem with her hemoglobin. This is what they test to see if she is anemic and she it apparently borderline low. It's not so bad that we have to put her on any kind of medication or anything but it is low enough that I have to start being more aware of what I'm feeding her. So she gave me a list of things to have her eat more of to get that level up.

The main thing that will be a change for us, is the amount of milk she needs a day. Apparently, she needs 16 ounces. She has been getting about half that. I'm not completely sure how the milk is going to help with her hemoglobin but I'll go with it. So now I'm aware of how much iron (what gets up an adult's hemoglobin) is in foods. The obvious is red meat, which the doctor didn't mention, but there is also green leafy vegetables, oatmeal and cheerios. A bowl of multi-grain cheerios has 100% of your daily iron requirements! Who knew. I guess we will be snacking on that over the goldfish crackers for a while.

Moving Again

I recently realized just how little time we have left here in Philly before we move on. While we don't yet know where we are going to be moving to next, the odds are good that we will be leaving the country once again. With that in mind, I'm starting to think about purging all of our crap.

Since wherever we go, they will use a different voltage, pretty much everything that plugs into the wall has to go. I'm starting with thinking of what I can get rid of now. I don't want to sell everything and live in an empty apartment for a month but I don't really want to wait until the last minute once again and be scrambling. So, I'm looking at things we don't use much like our toaster over and waffle iron to go out in the first round.

Then there is the question of how to sell them. I've been thinking about getting a booth at a flea market but am not sure how much I could get for it all. Some of it is decent and I was looking at a website that said to price things at about 10% of what you paid for it. At least I could just take it all at once. On the other hand, there is craigslist but I don't want to have to list everything separately. The idea of a yard sale has crossed my mind but we don't really have a yard (few places in Philly do so I couldn't even really ask a friend) and we are pretty off the beaten path for passing cars.


I'm also trying to figure out what we will want to take with us. Naturally anything emotional will stay with us. I just don't know about things like dishes and furniture. We will be able to buy things there, and it will probably be cheaper than shipping it, but do we want to live in an empty place after we arrive until we can get things replaced? I'm thinking of choosing a few necessities to take (things like one set of measuring spoons a cups - I have several, a few place settings of dishes, one or two sets of sheets) and purging the rest.

The idea of getting rid of my clothes is kind of exciting. Each time I open my closet I think of what will stay and what will go. I have so many things that I wear because I don't really have anything else (poor students that we are, I haven't bought clothes for me in a long time) but don't really like them or they are starting to get small as they shrink a little bit more in each wash. The dilemma comes with Anna's clothes. Jason pointed out that we could probably just get rid of all of our baby clothes since we won't need them for a bit. Logically that makes sense. Unfortunately, I'm kind of attached to them in a silly sentimental way that I would not have expected of myself (since I'm not the sentimental type) and am not ready to do that just yet.

As you can see, I have been thinking about this a lot. I fear, it's about time to start taking some kind of action. Wish me luck and if there is anything of ours that you would like (except that area rug, after all we went through it is definitely coming with us) make an offer.

Tell me the Stories of Jesus

A while ago, I started to worry that Anna didn't recognize a picture of Jesus. Of course it was before she could have really let us know even if she did recognize him, but still. This was also before we got our stuff back and had a picture of him hanging on our wall. So ever since then, I have been working to make sure she can point him out in a picture.

To go along with that goal, I've also started reading the Ensign to her at lunch. Mostly it's a chance for me to read it and hope that she picks up something. Naturally I don't really know how much she gets out of it but it distracts me so I can just let her eat and allows me to be sure I read it every month. Plus, it takes a whole month to get through it.

Well, yesterday while we were reading, we got to the point in the middle where they have all the pictures of Resurrected Jesus visiting with the people, ascending into heaven and visiting the Nephites. I have been known to just skip over the picture parts of the magazine but I thought we would look at them. So I held the magazine up in front of her, showed her the picture and told her what was happening and who was in the picture. She was enthralled. So much so that when we got to the end, neither of us were ready for it to be over so we went back through and I had her point to which one Jesus was in each picture. It was a great little spiritual moment in the part of our day that can get a little bit crazy what with being hungry and tired all at once.

Binkies

I am a binkie fan. However, I'm getting the feeling that it's time to wean Anna off of hers. She only uses it when she sleeps so naturally, I'm scared to mess with that. At least I won't have to get her away from it during the day. However, I worry that the longer I wait, the harder it will be to get over.

Naturally things are never this simple. We are moving in less than two months and then are going to be in transit for another month. So, is now a good time to do it or should I wait until we are settled in our new place? I'm worried about weaning her off of it now and then having her regress and wanting it again and then having to go through the whole process over again. Then there is the difficulty of moving all over and is she going to do better with that whole process if we have a binkie? We do have a stuffed lion that lives in the crib. She doesn't really sleep with it but she gives it to us when we get her up in the morning and from her naps. So would that be enough of a security object to help her with the move?

Then there is the trouble of how to do it so as to minimize the trauma to both her and us. I was thinking I would start with not giving it to her at nap time but still at bedtime and when she got used to sleeping without it for naps to move onto nights. For those of you who have done this before, what do you think? When should I do it and is this a good way to go about it?

Doctor Visit

Yesterday we took Anna to the doctor. She hadn't been to see a doctor (not counting her ear infection in December) since she was 4 months old. We didn't mean for it to go this long. I wanted to get insurance figured out first and by the time I made the appointment, this was the earliest we could do. Fortunately, Anna is pretty healthy so I didn't worry too much.

We were able to get an accurate height, weight and head circumference. She weighs 20 pounds and change (for some reason I don't remember the ounces) and is 31 inches tall with her head a whopping 45 centimeters. So that puts her at around the 25th percentile for weight, the 75th percentile for height and the 50th percentile for her head. I had suspected that she was tall and skinny. Her shirts get too short before they get too tight. One would think that she got that from her tall, skinny daddy but he was not tall and skinny when he was her age. He was a chunk.

Sadly, the other part of the appointment was the shots. We had to work on getting her caught up on her vaccinations so we pretty much stuck as much in her as we could. I don't think she is completely caught up yet but she is close. It came out to six shots, three in each arm. I had to hold her and by the time we moved to the second arm, she was getting angry. It wasn't just that it hurt, but that it kept hurting. She wanted to make sure we understood that she was against this. Oh, we got it. At least she didn't hold it against me. When we were done, she did turn to me for comfort.

Funny story. When the nurse was weighing and measuring her, she commented on how compliant she was. Apparently, when kids are around Anna's age, they remember her from the 12 month shots and blood draw (we're going to get her blood drawn at the lab so something to look forward to). Even if she is just weighing them, she can no longer be trusted.