Doctor Appointments Galore

Yesterday we went to Quinn's check up. She measures in the 90th percentile for height and weight (13 lbs, 10 oz, 24 inches tall). All seemed well with the check up and the shots (3) were, well, shots and she screamed bloody hell. The nurse asked if I wanted her to have the sucrose drops to offset the pain of the shots. I said yes, but oddly enough the nurse gave Quinn the sugar about 5 minutes BEFORE the shots - um, isn't the point of the sugar to distract Quinn from the shot being given??? Quinn was like, "mmmm, yummy, sugar, mmmmm, this is better than milk, slurp, slurp ..." (5 minutes elapse) ... "What the F&^% was that! OUCH! BLOODY HELL, MY LEGS!!!".
Noah had his kidney check up yesterday with the pediatric nefrologist (is that how you spell it?). Noah's good kidney is in the 95th percentile for size which means it is growing beyond normal expectations for his age which is good - it can compensate for the non-functioning right one. The only hurdle at this appointment is that they needed a urine sample from a 2 year old who is not potty trained. um... So they taped a bag over his penis and we had to wait until he peed. No
ah turned a 30 minute appointment into a 2 HOUR appointment because he apparently didn't have to go (or didn't want to go because of the tape/bag/awkwardness of the whole situation). After a tour of each water fountain in the complex with dad, he eventually went and then, so did we.
Lastly, I had a doctor appointment on Tuesday to have my finger looked at. I pulled a stupid hangnail and it got infected (yes, for those who remember correctly, I did this once before in grad school and they had to pull my freaking nail off - yes, I should have learned from that). My doctor put me on some stronger antibiotics and told me to check back Thursday to report on the progress. Well, there was no progress - no better, no worse, just red, swollen, throbbing, and hurting. She sent me to a general surgeon this morning who shot me up with local anesthetic (which numbed my whole finger except the part where he had to cut, oddly enough) and then sliced it open to drain what had become an abscess. So, now I have a huge gauze wrapped, throbbing finger that is hopefully on the road to recovery. Heidi is right, why is there some strange relationship between my delivering of a child and some strange infection/abscess shortly thereafter???

PS- you should know that it was very difficult to type this with the bloody stump on my right ring finger, so I do not apologize if there are typos! :0)

Blueberry Picking

Noah, Quinn, my mom and I left Manchester Tuesday morning for Stockton Springs, Maine. It was a 4 hour drive and I was a bit anxious because I've never driven that far with Noah, let alone with Quinn (and my mom!). Thankfully Quinn slept for 3 hours straight until she woke up hungry. Noah talked (and talked and talked) for 3 hours straight. We stopped at a grocery store with an hour to go so I could feed Quinn and we could use the bathroom. We arrived around 4:30 to meet Connie, Mike, Allison and Josh for wine and a lobster dinner! The beach was all rocky so Noah loved to splash and throw rocks. We found shrimp, snails and hermit crabs on the beach. We also found little toads in the woods leading down to the beach. Noah loved the ocean and could have spent hours throwing rocks. On Wednesday we played at the beach a bit more and headed out to a seafood restaurant for dinner. Although Quinn was awake for most of the day she slept soundly through dinner (thank goodness) and we all enjoyed our fried fisherman's platters (UGH and YUM at the same time). Thursday brought an adventure to Staples Homestead to pick wild blueberries. Quinn, Noah, mom, Connie, Mike and I headed to the fields and picked a total of 12 quarts of blueberries! It was a lot of fun and made us all a bit obsessive about picking berries (just a few more ... ). After lunch and a bit more beach time we hit the road at 2:30 and arrived back home at 7:00 after a more painful drive back (more stops, more complaining, more tears, and more milk stops than on the way there). All in all, better than I had imagined the drive. Thank goodness, because we are headed back to Maine for a week long vacation with friends in early September - only this time the drive is a bit longer! Off to make some blueberry muffins...

Urban Adventure

We live 45 miles north of Boston and almost never go to the city. Last night was free admission to the Boston Children's Museum so we decided to make the trip. Being minimalists, we packed only a diaper bag and hit the road. We arrived at the T station for Noah's first train ride. He liked it but not as much as we had expected him to. He liked the pigeons and hot dog vendor outside the station a bit better. I realized why no one else in the subway had infants with them - it's disgustingly gross and the crowds leave you wondering if someone is going to accidently bump into your baby. Thankfully, no one did.
The museum was very busy (being free admission & a very rainy evening) but Noah didn't seem to notice. He was most interested in the extensive train set and could have spent all 2 hours there driving dirty, beat up trains around a track similar to the one we have at home (did we need to come to Boston for this?). We finally convinced him that there were more "play rooms" to look at besides this one (3 floors of fun at the museum). He checked out "Peep's World" , "Aurthor's Place" and some Tool station. When it was all said and done we arrived back at the car at 9:30 - WAY past Noah's bedtime and we discovered that he (and we) never had dinner! A quick drive through Wendy's at 10:00 pm had to suffice. He only wanted to eat the french fries. After his 10:30 bedtime and french fries for dinner we felt a little like bad parents but knew that his first trip to the BCM was worth it. Mom needed to sleep in until 10:30 this morning to recover!