Week in Review

Well, it has been quite the week! On Sunday night, we were awoken by the visit of a most unwanted bedfellow. Below is a sampling of the dialogue that ensued between her and Michael that evening:

Kelly sits straight up in bed, clutching arm and belly "Ow, ow, ow!"
"What's wrong?"
"Ow, ow, OW!"
"What's wrong?!"
Kelly runs to the bathroom "OW, OW, OWWWWW!"
"What the bloody hell is WRONG!?!?!"
"It hurts! Ow, ow, OW!"
Apparently Michael is not fluent in the language of pain, so he had to resort to other means of interrogation to figure it out. While I was splashing myself with cold water trying to make sense of what the hell had just happened, Michael squished something in the hallway. I asked him what he was doing and he replied that he'd squished a bug. After the burning sensation still had not gone away after a minute, comprehension slowly dawned.
"What KIND of bug did you squish, dear?"
He looked a little sheepish. "A scorpion..."
Kelly promptly started wigging out again.
"I didn't want to tell you since I know you don't like them!"
"Is it dead!?"
"Thoroughly."
"Good, I'm going downstairs!"
I then hightailed it downstairs where I erupted into hysterics as I recounted my tale (no pun intended) and my dad gave me Benadryl. He and my mom also gave me an ice pack, which curiously enough helped quite a bit. I had a welt on my tummy about the size of a half dollar and a dime sized one on my arm. Near as we can tell, the scorpion crawled into our laundry from earlier in the day when I ran it, and when we dumped it out on the bed that evening, like a ninja, he crawled under the covers, waiting to strike. And boy howdy, did he! It felt like someone had stuck an IV in me, but the pricking sensation didn't go away and it BURNED. I really hate 8 legged critters, as anyone who knows me well can attest, but at this point, I would gladly take a spider over a scorpion any day. [shiver]

Being stung by a scorpion was not the only other thing exciting this week. On Tuesday, Kelly took the day off from work to have a doctor day. We took Sybilla to see Dr. Patil and Little S certainly impressed her. She walked in just as Sybilla was pulling herself up using my shirt. The doctor asked if she was just showing off and I replied that, no, she does it every day, all day. She's even begun to start stepping along when holding onto something, like the coffee table, or the baby corral. I was chastised for not taking babyproofing seriously enough, which we are beginning in earnest this week. The doctor also asked about talking and vocalizing, which up until this point, we hadn't even thought about. We hadn't really noticed anything out of the ordinary, and the doctor was surprised since little girls by this age are apparently VERY vocal. Our child is vocal alright; she just finds it more efficient to scream and holler than babble.

Sybilla waiting for Dr. Patil

Since Tuesday though, we've been paying more attention to what our child is saying and she actually babbles quite a bit. She has also discovered pitch and range as well, much to the chagrin of the animals in the house (and mommy). Sybilla can reach octaves that makes Mariah Carey sound like an alto! The kiddo weighed in at 18.2 pounds putting her in the 75-90th percentiles, so her weight has begun to plateau. She eats like a horse because she's moving so much, and Dr. Patil has increased solids to three times a day and we are eating anywhere from 2 to 4 ounces at a meal. We also got the go ahead to start meat! Sybilla really likes chicken. Mommy actually went ahead and made some for her this weekend and she loves it more than the storebought stuff. I am going to have to get a food processor though, because I don't know how much more the poor blender can take.

On Thursday, we celebrated Anthony Marino's 28th birthday. Happy Birthday, Uncle Anthony! Michael got him a movie and cigars, and Billa and I baked him a cheesecake with cherry butter sauce on top. We stayed out a little too late, but I think it worked out in our favor, because Sybilla SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!! I am not making this up. We put her to bed about 8:30, which is a little later than she normally stays up, and when Mommy and Daddy went to bed at 10:30, we didn't wake up until 5 am! Hallelujah! Of course, she didn't sleep well Friday night, but the performance on Saturday night was great. Michael has been keenly instrumental in this, because he's been going downstairs to comfort her when she wakes up in the middle of the night the past week. Michael's been waking up at 2 am for work lately, and I felt that he needed to get as much sleep as he could, so I was always the one taking care of her when she woke up. However, she'd been waking up every two hours again and would cry nonstop, sometimes for an hour, even with Mommy rocking and cuddling, etc. It was during a weekend off that we discovered it was Boobalicious Mommy that was setting Billa off in a frenzy, and only Super Daddy had the magic touch (and patience) that put her back to sleep almost instantaneously. Thank God, too, because Mommy was on the verge of committing herself to the crazy house just to get some sleep! The baby now wakes up at about 4:30 or 5 in the morning, but because my newest goal has been to go to bed by 10:30, that's giving Mommy at least 6 hours of much needed UNINTERRUPTED beauty sleep! So a big shout out to Daddy: Thank you, Michael; I couldn't imagine sharing parenthood with anyone else--I am so grateful for you!

And to round out the excitement this week, the hammock on the front porch finally got tired of swinging everybody's big butts over the years and decided it had had enough. It pulled out from the brick wall tumping Michael and I to the ground. Thankfully, no one was injured seriously, but Michael and I were very surprised (and a little bruised).

So that is the week in review! Billa starts daycare on Tuesday and hopefully we will not have any more mishaps with 8 legged critters visiting in the middle of the night. And I have a video for you to view that deals with Billa's newest obsession: anything in a glass. Please enjoy and until next time,

Kelly and the Gang