One Year, Baby!

I can hardly believe it, but little Maren Jane has made it an entire year without an overnight stay in the hospital! Wow!!! Needless to say it's been a good year.

A week or so ago I took Henry and Maren to Holy Cross Hospital to visit Grandpa Bill. He is home and doing much better after a mysterious case of pancreatitis. It was interesting to see Maren's initial reaction to going into the room. Anytime the nurse walked in Maren followed her everywhere with untrusting eyes. At one point Bill's blood pressure was taken and Maren stared the nurse down as she got the cuff ready. Just as Maren was about to throw a fit, she was confused yet pleasantly surprised when the cuff ended up on Grandpa's arm instead of hers. She sat there staring at Bill totally amazed that he wasn't in complete distress.

For Henry the best part of the visit was watching Sesame Street on Grandpa's TV. He would never, ever admit it, but he likes it... a lot. We don't watch it much in our house. Maren definitely has issues with Big Bird. When Big Bird comes up on the screen Maren reacts as if Baily (Aunt Ronda's very large labradoodle) were jumping through the screen at her. Whatever. I guess it's not too weird to be freaked out by a fat, yellow, 10-foot, talking bird. But I digress...

Maren's highlight of the visit was riding on Bill's bed. Bill is going to LOVE me for showing him half naked in a hospital gown to the world, but I figure most will be watching Maren, anyway. For a good laugh, wait for her right eye to cross at the end of the clip. We’ve been told that she probably has some muscular issue with that eye, and that’s why she’s doing it, but I’m not convinced. I think she does it to be silly. Either way, it’s friggin’ hysterical and I will enjoy it while it lasts. Okay, here it goes:



So, the next time we are in the hospital (hopefully not for a while :), we'll for sure have to request one of those beds.

Here are a few of random pictures:

The untensil thing isn't going so well. Maren would dip both of her hands into the yogurt, pull them out, and suck the yogurt off of ONE finger before submerging both hands back into the bowl. She'll get it... eventually.


The Baltimore Aquarium, courtesy of Chest Compression Amy.


Making Jelly Fish at the aquarium.