Nonnegotiable

When we were young, my sisters and I used to love giving Dad "a perm." This mostly involved dotting his head with lots of little barrette-ponytails.

He actually loved it because he could lay on the floor and doze off while getting credit for playing with us.

I have never mentioned this tradition to Evelyn.

A few days ago, Evelyn emptied out all her hairbows, put them into a ziplock bag, and insisted on carrying them around all day. All afternoon, she told me that she was going to put hairbows in Daddy's hair so he could be a princess. I offered to submit to hairbow-pinning and be a princess. Several times. I was rebuffed. Evelyn only wanted to put hairbows on Daddy.

When John came home, she told him about her plan, and he said no. Daddies are not princesses, he said. The nerve!

I told him it was nonnegotiable. There are some things you just have to accept, some things that come with the territory of being dad to a little girl.

32 weeks in all its glory

These are actually from last Sunday. You're welcome, Cindi. If it weren't for you, I would have happily refused to create an photographic record of myself pregnant with #2. I mean, I documented it last time right? And really, it's just the same basic idea but with more weight gain the second time around.

I think pregnancy is getting the best of me

A couple weeks ago, I bought Evelyn her first set of markers. Crayola washables. So far, we have had no major incidents, although we have found it difficult to keep marker off our hands, and our arms. We do not draw on our hands with markers. We do not draw on our arms with markers. We only draw on the paper.

Yesterday, I was doing my hair and makeup, and Evelyn came to stand on her stool beside me and watch me. Now, even at the best of times, I have relatively translucent skin, but the increased blood flow or hormones or something of pregnancy have made this problem even worse. Enter the warm weather (short sleeves, no tan), and my arms look a little like a human etch-a-sketch at times.

Evelyn: Mommy, we don't do that!
Me: Do what, sweetie?
Evelyn: We don't draw on our hands. We don't draw on our arms!
Me: What?
Evelyn (pointing to large, green blood vessel running from my wrist to my elbow): Look. On your arm. We do not draw on our arms.

Sigh.

Yes, I have to say, so far, summer is treating Evelyn much better than it is treating me. She looks adorable in a swimsuit, she got to wear shorts for the first time in months today, and although these pictures don't really show it, styled by sweat is her hair's best look. You'd think she could muster up a better facial expression after such a bang-up awesome day.

Gotta love

The tush. Especially in a ballet skirt that came free with a pair of PJs.

Don't mind the jump rope burn on her neck. Apparently, tug of war is not a three-way game. Especially if you are in the middle and the two kids on either ends of the rope are older and faster than you. Lesson learned.

As opposed to the last time we tried to take her picture, Miss E was in the mood to pose. Why is it that this never happens during scheduled family picture time?

(Photos courtesy of Kathryn)

Of Course!

When I went into Evelyn's room this afternoon to get her up from quiet time . . .

Me: Evelyn, why did you take your hairbows out?

Evelyn: To make a O!

Can't argue with that.

When I Said I Wanted to Move Back to the East Side

This wasn't exactly what I meant.

Although our room did have a view . . .

Because posterity theoretically cares if I document these things, Evelyn was in the hospital for a day earlier this week. We went to the pediatrician on day 4 of a fever+cough and got sent to the ER for chest X-ray and more breathing treatments. (We have a nebulizer at home and typically end up on albuterol at home when she gets colds due to wheezing). The doctor said her lungs were crackling as well as wheezing (like breathing Rice Krispies?), and her oxygen levels were too low.

In the ER, her oxygen levels got worse instead of better after a treatment or two. The chest X-ray came back negative for typical pneumonia but with a pattern that showed compromised lung function due to either a virus or walking pneumonia. They kept her overnight because often oxygen levels drop even further while sleeping, and they thought she might need supplemental oxygen during the night (she was on oxygen on and off in the ER). Since she also had an ear infection, they also put her on an IV antibiotic for the ear infection and the possible walking pneumonia.

Her oxygen levels stayed high enough overnight that we were able to go home the next day. By the time we left, she was also fever free. We had a slight setback when she vomited up the oral antibiotics every time I administered them, but we eventually got a new prescription, and she doesn't seem to be any worse for the experience. We're still on breathing treatments at home, but luckily she finally learned to hold the mask herself during our February cold (as distinguished from the March cold that landed us in the hospital - the two colds were separated by about 1 week of healthiness!). So, she's been doing a lot of this,

which she actually loves since she gets to watch a lot more Sesame Street than I usually allow. Every time I try to administer the antibiotics, she tells me she wants a breathing treatment instead.

* * *

Visiting the hospital isn't the only thing we've been up to lately. We went to Boston to visit Laurel for two days toward the end of February. It rained most of the time we were there, but we didn't care because Laurel borrowed a car to chauffer us around in style. Most excitingly, we went to an indoor water park to help hold Evelyn over until summertime. Her favorite part? "Swimming" in the foot or so of water at the bottom of an out-of-order waterslide.

Yes, summertime is still months away, but that hasn't kept Evelyn from eagerly anticipating its return every time she dresses herself. Unfortunately, she seems to be under the impression that diaper covers are shorts. We're going to need to work on that.

Rooms with a View

Today, we officially entered contract to purchase a new (to us) apartment. If you've heard us talk about an apartment, it probably isn't this one. We actually got very close to a deal on a different apartment two buildings down and had been biding our time in a far, far less than ideal living situation while waiting for the seller of that apartment to work through some permitting issues. When we heard at the end of January that our deal for that apartment was off, let's just say it was a rough few days. We made an offer on this apartment three days later. That was three weeks ago. Things move slowly in New York City real estate. I think my brother-in-law moved into his new house within not much more than three weeks of making his initial offer. We still have at least three months and several possible stumbling blocks ahead of us, not the least of which is board approval. But tonight, we're not going to think about any of that. We're just going to look at the picture of the view from the terrace that runs the length of the apartment and dream about summer nights to come.