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Both girls are getting an Aquadoodle mat for Christmas. I’m not sure if it’s from Santa or George’s sister. I’m pretty sure though that it’s the one with Thomas the Tank Engine. Generally speaking, no one here is the least bit interested in Thomas the actual show, but the Aquadoodle itself is really neat, and Hayley loves trains. You can use one of the special markers to lay down a train track on the mat and the Thomas train will follow it. I’ve always wanted to get Hayley one of these so I’m looking forward to it. Now if only I could figure out what to get them individually from us!

If you happened to want to buy your girlfriend (or girl friend!) a cell phone as a gift but were lost in the sea of too many options, you could check out this phones for girls post where five different phones were reviewed. It covers large and well known brands, including LG, Samsung, Nokia, and Motorola. It’s a handy guide detailing the main features and pros vs. cons of each. Read it, print it out, and take it to your nearest cellphone dealer!

I noticed today that there are only 13 days left until Christmas. It’s hard not to notice, really. Hayley has an advent calendar so I always know the exact date by breakfast time, which is the longest I can hold her off from getting to that tiny square of chocolate. She also has the countdown calendar that we made together, and every day she peels off one more number, leaving us with X number of sleeps until the big day.

It’s getting redundant of me to say this every year, but I’m just not ready. Oh sure, the tree is up and has been since the U.S. Thanksgiving because I couldn’t wait any longer. We’ve been enjoying the holiday-themed shows on various television networks. We’ve watched our Mickey Mouse Christmas DVD, the Caillou Holiday movie, the cartoon version of the Grinch, and a really bad remake of Rudolph on video.

But me? I’m not ready. We still have so much to get. So far Santa has gotten the ball pit tent and an Aquadoodle set for the girls but we still have to get Hayley’s play vanity and the stuff to go with it, Breanna’s musical instrument, and one more gift from us to each of them. We also have to get stocking stuffers, though those are usually pretty easy thanks to dollar stores. And we haven’t gotten any gifts for anyone in our families.

I know what the holidays are supposed to be about. Too bad my nerves don’t understand that and are going haywire over how quickly this month is zipping by with so much left to do.

Here’s an incredibly easy way to spread some good holiday cheer. There’s a great Toys for Tots Campaign at Vimo right now – in approximately 30 seconds, you can go and rate your doctor for their database. In return, for every review Vimo promises to donate one dollar to Toys for Tots throughout December, up to $100,000. Imagine being able to contribute to such a good cause with only 30 seconds out of your day? How often can you say that? Go review now and help send toys to needy kids!

I’m a little concerned that on the entire Toys R Us site, I didn’t find one single toy that really said “this would be an excellent gift for Breanna”. Who knew a second child would be so hard to shop for? I think the reason it’s so difficult is that we still had all of Hayley’s old toys. Breanna is perfectly happy playing with Hayley’s old kitchen and allt he toy food that came with it. she plays with the dolls we already have, the Little People stuff we have, blablabla ad nauseum. I keep thinking something musical, but what? My sister got her a xylophone, maybe we can get her a drum or something? Bah phooey. George said to get her an iPod so she can listen to music and dance all day. Hee.

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Not only did Breanna have her check-up today, it was also the first time that she had ever been forward-facing in the car. Interestingly, it was also the first time that she drove for that long without crying at all. Even when she got tired, she just yawned and closed her eyes, then went to sleep. She thought it was amazing to be able to really see things, and she laughed most of the way to the hospital, especially when I would turn around and she was able to actually see me.

We only had to wait about 15 minutes, most of which was because we were early for our appointment. Hayley passed the time by going to the Second Cup in the hospital and getting a muffin with her grandfather. Meanwhile, I chatted with a mom of a 6-month-old who seemed overjoyed that I, like her, see nothing wrong with giving a baby some lightly seasoned food, making your own food instead of using jarred stuff (which Breanna never liked), and letting them try things that not everyone would give someone that age. I guess other people had been giving her a hard time. In between our chats, Breanna alternated between patting her baby on the legs, and running up and down the halls. She was very social, smiling and preening at everyone that stopped to ooh and ahh over her.

Then it was time for her appointment and the social pleasantries were instantly dropped. Part of the problem was that she had been so enthralled by the drive that she only fell asleep when we were exactly two blocks away from the hospital. Since she had woken up at 9 am, she hadn’t napped yet so by 1:30 she was tired and not interested in being prodded. She was very upset to have someone that she doesn’t know measuring her, listening to her heart, and sticking a light in her ears. Also, the doctor was a very lovely Muslim woman who was dressed in the typical headscarves; Breanna is not fond of people wearing anything on their heads, and actually doesn’t even like it when my hair is wrapped in a towel after my shower. Between the scarves and the doctor’s tools, Breanna was totally not impressed.

By the time we went to weigh her, she was somewhat ballistic and wasn’t interested in co-operating by sitting on the baby scale (why they keep those out in the hall I will never know, because it means that all these babies are always crying in full waiting rooms). We tried but quickly decided it would be much better to just go back in the room and weigh both of us, and then just me, subtracting to get her weight. She still wasn’t happy because then the doctor had to hold her while I adjusted the scale for my weight, but at least it was faster.

After that, I got her dressed except for her pants and calmed her down while the doctor went to locate a nurse to help her with the shots. I had just fed her and gotten her quiet when they came back ready to stick needles in her poor thighs. Still, I was surprised that she didn’t react that badly. She sat on my lap facing me in case she wanted to nurse (she didn’t, she wasn’t interested at all what with two strangers hovering over her and wiping her legs down with alcohol), and when they injected her, she looked up at me and cried but she stopped as soon as the bandages were on.

Overall, despite her unhappiness, everything went really well. She measured in at 29.5 inches, her head circumference was 18.7 inches, and her weight was about 24 pounds, possibly a few ounces more. She’s pretty steady on the 75th percentile for all three. The doctor was pleased to hear that she’s enthused about trying any type of food and assured me I didn’t need to worry that she doesn’t eat big meals. She also said that although it’s great that I’m still breastfeeding (she is too, with 17-month-old twins!) that I can go ahead and try milk if I want since she’s doing well with cheese and yogurt. She is also the first medical professional who has actually told me that there is nothing wrong with letting your baby sleep beside you at night in bed. I never felt that there was, but having a doctor tell me that was awesome. She said she works at a breastfeeding clinic and that not only do a lot of the mothers do it too, she also recommends it to mothers who have a hard time because of being overtired. Thus, she is now my new favorite person!

She was pleased as well with the milestones and Breanna’s development. She was impressed that Breanna has been walking since shortly after nine months (though she said she was glad her twins didn’t start that early, hee), and thought she was doing fine with other things. She agreed with me that there’s no concern about whether Breanna’s words are actual words, as long as we know what they mean and she uses them consistently (for instance, she doesn’t say hi, exactly, but she waves and says “haaa”, kind of like a little southern belle). Breanna also follows simple instructions like “get that” or “give that to Daddy” when she wants, and she points when she wants something, so that was all right in line with normal development.

I had a good giggle when I was asked about her hearing. There is definitely nothing wrong with Breanna’s ears. If she’s in the living room, even with music playing or the television on, she will come running if she hears me open either the fridge or the dryer. Every time, without fail. She can most definitely hear.

Knock on wood, the vaccinations didn’t seem to affect her, at least not yet. She had the MMR and a meningococcal vaccine as well. She was also supposed to get the chicken pox and Prevnar but I wasn’t sure about the chicken pox yet. I asked if we could think about that one so she said to come back at 15 months for the Prevnar and then I could have more time to decide on the other. Also, because Hayley never had the chicken pox vaccine and because I’ve never had the vaccine or actual chicken pox, it would be recommended that all three of us come in for it so I’ll be doing some research into that.

In any case, I didn’t give her any pain medication right away, watching to see how she would react. She was fine. She slept on the way home and other than some sleepy crankiness, she seemed perfectly okay. I did give her some Motrin before bed just in case, so that I can hopefully avoid having her react badly at midnight. Here’s hoping that all goes well tonight, although it can technically bring about side effects for up to 8 to 10 days. Whee!

At least, after all that, I now know that there’s a good reason my arms get tired on the clingy days; it’s because I’m carrying around a 24-pound baby!

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Breanna has her one year check-up tomorrow at the doctor’s office. Obviously, it’s a little late but it couldn’t really be helped. I thought she could also see a nurse like most of the other appointments, but for some reason they only book you with a doctor for the one year. In order to get an appointment with our actual doctor, I would have needed to book it at least three months ahead of time. I called at the beginning of November and he wasn’t available at all and I couldn’t see my favorite nurse either.

At first she managed to get me in with one of the other doctors for last Monday. It’s a team family clinic, so you can easily be switched from one doctor or nurse to another if the need arises, so it was no big deal. Unfortunately, both kids came down with the Plague cold that weekend and I canceled the appointment because there was no way I was taking two kids who were already leaking bodily fluids into a doctor’s office; they don’t have separate waiting rooms for well vs sick visits so I didn’t want them making anyone else sick and I also didn’t want them to get something worse from having weakened immune systems and being around other germs.

Of course, it doesn’t help that there has been a major outbreak of a gastro virus at several Montreal hospitals lately. Joy. If either of them touches anything, I may freak right out.

I’m not looking forward to the check-up. I do want to know how much she weighs and how she’s doing, and I look forward to sharing all the milestones she’s met and the things that she does. However, tomorrow is the MMR vaccination and I remember that one well. The after-effects are not fun. We’ll have the Infant Motrin lined up and waiting for her but it still sucks.

The other reason I’m not thrilled is because when we had to re-schedule, we got shoved in at 1:30 which is just a bad time*. She often goes down for a nap around 1:30 or 2 and I’m worried that she’ll be cranky and overtired. I’m hoping that she’ll get up early enough that she can take a short nap at least in the morning before we leave. Then maybe she’ll fall asleep in the car on the way home. You never realize how much effort it is to schedule things around your kid’s naps before they get here.

Either way, it will be good to have confirmation that – as we already know – she’s doing just fine. And hey, the bonus of the wonky time is that there won’t be any traffic on the way there and we should (hopefully) be done early enough to avoid traffic on the way home.

(*secretly, I’m also bummed that I’ll miss my soap opera but I can’t complain about it because it will help perpetuate the rumor that stay at home moms eat bonbons and watch soaps all day.)