Busy Monday

This past Monday, Juliana and I had a full day. We started out by making a trip down to Issaquah to pick up Sahm-Yi and take her downtown for a 3-day conference. After dropping her off at the hotel for her meetings, baby and I stopped by my old workplace to say hello to some former co-workers. First we popped in on the Finance department, where I used to work and then visited some people from the division I used to support. Hard to believe that it has been 18 months since I've been out of work, and was flattered to find that I was still missed after this long. (Yes, I've missed the people there, too - maybe not ALL the work, though. Ha ha)

When lunch rolled around, Juliana and I met up with Sahm-Yi again, to enjoy a meal at Palomino. We didn't have any time to do any shopping while Downtown (maybe that is a good thing for the pocketbook), since we had to get back up to Everett for an afternoon appointment.

Juliana had her 18 month well-child check-up. Upon arriving at the clinic, we had to fill out a 4-page questionnaire about Juliana's activities and abilities. Does she pick up a crayon and draw without watching it being done first? Does she have a vocabulary of 10 or more words? Can she stack 3 or more blocks on her own? etc.

The first 3 pages were to check her general development, which she passed. The last page was to screen for autism, which she also passed... or is it that she didn't pass? Anyhow, she doesn't have autism, is what I mean to say. Height & weight were in the 53rd and 47th percentile, respectively... and head circumference is still hovering around the 93rd percentile. I always forget how big her head is, until I see her with other kids her age, but even then it doesn't look huge to me. Maybe because a centimeter of difference is big on the charts, but not so much in real life. And, besides that, I never hear people pointing and saying things like "Whoa! Check out the noggin on that one!"

She had one shot that day, and didn't have too big a fit. Thankfully, she's done with them now until her preschool years. (outside of annual flu shots and one Hib vaccine shot, for which there is currently a nationwide shortage) After the initial shock, she spent the next few minutes pointing at her thigh saying "Owee! Owee! Owee! Owee!"

After all the driving around and meeting various people, it was time to go home and relax for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Walking back to the car, the wind picked up and made us both squint in order to see where we were going.

I don't know why, but whenever it gets really windy, I think back to my mid-twenties, when Teresa and I took her little brother Austin (then around 2 years old) to the grocery store to give their mom a few minutes of breathing room. It was a warm day, so we had the windows of the minivan rolled down, and half-way to the store, we turned around to check on Austin in his car seat to find him squinting and saying, "T-o-o w-i-n-d-y-y-y" in that little voice he had back then. Poor Austin. We immediately rolled up the windows for him. So, yes, the phrase "t-o-o w-i-n-d-y-y-y" pops into my head whenever it is windy. (and, yes, you have to stretch out the pronunciation, or it doesn't work)

I remember something else about that grocery trip, too. I remember getting the strangest looks from other shoppers that day. We were pushing the cart down the aisle, and Teresa left me with Austin while she popped over to the next aisle to grab something we forgot. For the next few minutes, I found it rather funny that people stared, perplexed, at the Asian girl shopping with the blond, blue-eyed boy. I should have looked them in eyes and asked, "Do you think he looks like me?"