Saturday, April 02, 2005

the rundown

We haven't had a real update since Jacqui's birthday on 17 March. There's been no time to type; too much has been going on in this house.

First, we had a teaparty/birthday party for her on 19 March -- the Saturday following her birthday. About 30 of her honorary aunts/uncles/fairygodparents attended, drank tea, ate cake, and applauded her many accomplishments. These included, for that day: walking with assistance, refusing to eat cake, and pummelling the other children. (Her doctor says that reaction to other children in her space was entirely normal and to be expected.) The weather was lovely and folks spread out onto our back deck, which was nice.

The day before her party, I cleaned and baked (banana bread, devilsfood cake, yellow cake) and ran to the Heidelberg Bakery for her official birthday cake. Jacqui spent the afternoon in Tyson's Corner with her daddy, picking out tea (the peach oolong was a big hit, but my favorite was the jasmine phoenix dragon pearls).

Then the day after her party, Jacqui decided to put something very hard, edged, and unidentified from near the front door into her gaping maw and swallow it. I know what it felt like because I tried without success to pull it out of her mouth while she was choking on it. It went down, and on Tuesday (March 22) after her one-year checkup, she received her first chest x-ray to make sure nothing was caught in her esophagus. (Nothing was.) Since then, she hasn't had any issues, but we also haven't found whatever-it-was on the other end (ahem). I'm certain that it was actually a piece of rubber from the bottom of our screen door ... and from previous experience with a certain DOG who loves to swallow indigestible items, we know that rubber is unlikely to survive stomach acid. So given everything, we've stopped examining her output. It was a very exciting few days, though.

The next Saturday was 26 March, and Jacqui went with her daddy to Potomac Mills (an outlet mall) while I hosted a baby shower for a friend. Everyone had a good time in both places, and for the first time in months, Jacqui slept ALL NIGHT afterward. And at the risk of jinxing it, she's slept at least 7 hours per night since!

On Easter Sunday, her Grandpa, Grandma Lynn, and her great-grandmother (my Mom-mom) came over to see her. Grandpa brought a rocking chair he'd restored for her, and she had the BEST TIME rocking in it! It's still too big, but that didn't stop her! We caught it on video, and one day I'll put it online.

Today, Saturday, April 2, she and I drove over to my grandmother's house to visit with her, my aunt Marie, my cousin Cindy and her family. Jacqui didn't beat anyone up.