Little happenings

For the last few days, Melanie has been sleeping better. Two nights ago, we got an eight hour stretch out of her, and last night, she was only up twice. This coming from the child whose typical nocturnal activities involve screaming like her limbs are being hacked off two/three/seven times a night. It is a pleasant departure from the norm, let me tell you. Here's hoping that her new year's resolution is to continue the progress!

In other Melanie news, she stood up for the first time yesterday! A friend who was holding her didn't know she doesn't stand, and set her down on her feet. Apparently she wobbled, then stood up for about ten seconds! I looked over at the end and gasped because she was standing, which evidently threw her concentration because she then fell over. It is exciting/terrifying...exciting because it's always great to see your kids do new things. Terrifying because the next step is walking, God help us all.

Yesterday, Megan had to have a dental procedure done that removed the piece of skin holding her top lip to her gums. It was attaching between her front teeth instead of higher up on her gums (which is abnormal, but apparently hereditary because Marina and Melanie will have to have the same thing done). In any case, she has a wound in her upper lip now that we have to keep an eye on and treat with some Vitamin E every day. Holy crap. You would think that Dn. John and I were attempting to shove hot pokers in her eyes. It took both of us to pin her down while she screamed and flailed, and even then we weren't able to do a very good job of getting the medicine on it. I was having a hard time getting too mad at her though, because I have a random but very clear memory of being about her age, and having both my parents pinning me down on the living room floor to get pink eye medication in my eyelids, while I screamed and flailed like a banshee. Somewhere, my Mother is laughing at me as she reads this. Here's to you Mom. The universe has come full circle.

And, to be three for three, here is Marina's update. Her collarbone is healing quite nicely. She is no longer in pain, and we can pick her up under her arms again. Technically, we're supposed to keep her quiet/inside/still for another week or so. HA. That's one of those "How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?" kind of tasks. It now occurs to me that her name fits very nicely into the lyrics of that song..."How do you solve a problem like Marina? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? How do you keep a wave upon the sand?" The line I like the most? "She can throw a whirling dervish out of whirl!" Yep. That's my girl.

Dn. John and I are are doing quite well also, thank you. We get our car back from the shop today (it was hit by a snowplow in a parking lot a few weeks ago--while parked, I might add. No one was in it. Apparently, since it's a white vehicle, it camouflages well into the snow). I'm also planning on cleaning out the entryway closet today so we can bring in Dn. John's super-cool new tool chest that he got for Christmas and set it up tonight. It has been living in the shed since Black Friday, and it will be really nice to consolidate all his tools, since they are currently living in about six different places all over the house, and we can never find them when we need them. Yes, I will admit this is as much a gift for me as it is for him. Yay for organization!