The Good, the Bad and the...

Absolutely Disgusting.

Warning -- whiny email. If you don't want to hear it, dont' read it.

I'll start with the last one. I took Clara to the doctor Monday because she was feeling miserable and had a small fever Sunday. Pulling at her ears and writhing in the night, I could only assume meant another ear infection. Actually, she was fine and her ears looked great the doctor said. (After giving me a "lesson" on how green boogers don't mean anything bad and are a common misconception engraved into our brains from a study in the '80's which was later disproved in the late 80's as indicating infection...blah blah blah. Thanks doc. it's still not normal.) Yesterday when I took her out of the car after getting home from daycare -- and then continuing the rest of the evening -- everything about Clara was green. Green goo coming from her eyes, her nose, crusted in her hair. It was disgusting. The doctor said it didn't mean anything, and that it was just clogging her tear ducts...so I didn't worry. But it was gross. She looked miserable this morning, but didn't seem to feel bad so off she went to daycare.

The Bad
More Clara.
SO, now that Clara's ears are clear I figured this would be a good time to start working on that sleeping through the night thing. The doctor said he wasn't surprised she had that problem, because she's had ear infections for so long she missed that time around 4 months when babies usually start sleeping through the night because she always felt bad. So, we discussed how to do this.
On Monday, I didn't feed Clara right before bed so that she fell asleep that way, I fed her and then put her into her bed (fairly) awake. I thought she would fuss and cry, but she didn't. She saved it all for the middle of the night. She was up by 9:30, and was just crying and fussing and fidgeting for 2 hours (very unlike her might I add.) Then she was up from 1 - 2:00, and again from 4:15 - 5:00. I tried to let her just cry, but it went on for far too long, and after 45 minutes went in to get her each time. I'll tell you people, last night was not any better. It was better when I was up 4 times feeding her because at least then she was only up for about 10 minutes. 40 minutes total at night versus 40 minutes three times a night is HUGE!

The Annoying
Okay, I told you this was a whiny post, so I added this one. Clara has also decided that -- at home only it seems -- she is not going to eat baby food anymore. Why? I don't know. She stares and grabs for our food like it's gourmet every night -- it's not any night for that matter. You'd think this wouldn't be a bad thing, but she can't eat what we eat every night. AND, we eat a lot of raw veggies, because we don't like the cooked ones, so now I have to cook seperate veggies for her and wah wah wah wah. This while dealing with Greta's eating habits -- when she chooses to actually put something in her mouth and swallow it. I know I was a picky eater, and I know my sister was worse -- I seem to remember it was impossible to get through a dinner without her gagging - but I also know it didn't start THIS young!

Alright, let's wind things up on a good note.
A couple of cute stories. We had so much fun playing outside yesterday afternoon. Greta had a ball pulling Clara up and down the street in the wagon, and Clara had a lot of fun giggling the whole time too.
Every since playing with some play money at a b-day party (pictures in a future post) Greta has wanted some. We looked this weekend, but couldn't find any. I was telling a lady at work about this, and she called me that evening saying she found some when she was at Rite-Aid and bought it for Greta. So I told Greta this and she said "Oh wow. Mommy, make sure you say thank you tomorrow. That was so nice!" Greta didn't forget and yesterday as soon as I saw her asked about the money (and then about 10 times in the 3 minute ride from her school to home.) When I gave it to her she said "Mommy did you tell your friend thank you? This was very nice of her." "Yes Greta I did" "Well Mommy, did she say you're welcome?" "Yes Greta, she did." "Well Mommy, (this is how most conversations go) did you say you're welcome you're welcome? Because you want to be nice to your friends." At least she's picking up on the morals we are trying to teach....

Greta has some little sayings that she adds into conversations at the funniest times. Her newest thing is to say "you never know!" It is so funny to hear, just at a random time "You never know Mommy!" She also slides in a "that's for sure".
And this morning, just when I was dreading going to work, more tired than I've been in a long time, cranky, etc. a zippy little song comes on the radio and Greta and I danced in our seats the whole way to her school. This is a time when I really wish the ride was longer, because we were having so much fun.

And then I realized I forgot to get Clara more diapers for daycare so I had to run to the grocery store to get some more and just squeak into work on time.

Ho hum. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.