Coloring is not her favorite thing to do, but sometimes I can get her to spend a few minutes occupying herself with crayons or markers. Mostly she likes to take the pens from the nurses and scribble on their notes. She pulls this trick on all of them. She reaches out her hands and acts like an innocent, curious baby who doesn't know what a pen is. And as soon as they say "Oh, you little cutie. Do you want to see my pen?" she snatches it away and starts scribbling on the nearest paper surface. Fortunately she hasn't learned yet that it's possible to scribble on other things. I have a feeling she'll figure that out at home on our walls or something of more value than paper.
Katie Mei acting shy, but enjoying the xylophone bells during music sessions in the playroom. She doesn't just jump into any activity; she always stays back from the crowd and observes for awhile before deciding she's willing to participate. She's going to be our deep thinker who investigates matters thoroughly before making decisions.
She's a very curious child and she learns routines and rules very quickly. Nurses are always amazed at how cooperative she is when they have to do any procedure on her, including painful stuff. She cries during blood tests and when her chest tube is flushed, but never fights or pulls away. She offers her leg for blood pressure checks, lifts her arm for the thermometer in her armpit, offers her foot for the pulse-ox tape, and takes all her meds very well. She's got the use of most of the medical equipment down pat. I think she could probably do her own echocardiograms now if she had to.
She would spend hours on my lap each day if she thought I'd let her. This is a common position for us (minus the psychedelic light thingy on her forehead), and she loves to climb on my lap. That vinyl-covered couch is my bed we're sitting on.
She demands a lot of my attention, and I'm glad she enjoys it--great for the bonding and attachment. However, there are lots of times when enough is enough and she's mad as heck because I won't hold her like that anymore. She's gotten very possessive of me, and when an adult comes in to talk to me and she wants my attention, she often pouts or starts to cry quietly. Gonna be trouble when she gets home and I start lovin' on my other two!
You can see the chest drain box on the floor next to the crib. That's what I kicked over today! Fortunately it only dumped out the water from the water seal and not the slimey chest fluid.
We walk these halls for as long as we can before a) we have to get hooked back up to the vacuum, or b) I go nuts doing the loop more than six times.
Singing to her baby. This girl loves to sing. She has started picking up books and singing, which I imagine came from the few weeks at home when she went to church and saw us singing from a hymnal. I don't know where else she'd come up with holding up a coloring book and singing toward it.
This is Ms. Naughtiness. We go through routines like this all the time. She loves to try to play tricks on me, and even when she makes me mad by doing this, like doing it when I'm trying to change her clothes or diaper, she always seems to get me to start cracking up. Just watch the devilishness in her eyes. She's got a streak, and doesn't hesitate to use it. She's mostly a very happy, funny child, but she can throw a tantrum. The good thing is that if I get her laughing when she's mad, she gets over the mad pretty quickly. She has a tendency to always try to do the opposite of what I say, so if I tell her to sit up, it's an automatic invitation for her to flip herself back. She loves this game and we do it almost every time I put her in the crib.
Hope you enjoyed the lighter side of things today. We all need a lift from the weather and the tedium of this hospital stay.
Love,
Petrie
