Ponies and Trauma

Beverly Hills being Beverly Hills, the farmer's market there has a pony ride and a petting zoo once a month. Last month they weren't there (Petra had a great time shopping anyway), but this month- score! Petra was the smallest girl on the pony ride (and they were all girls), but arguably the happiest. She kept up a non-stop monologue the entire trip. She had the operator laughing as each time she came around the ring she'd be chatting at him about how she was riding a pony and holding the "handle bar" etc. etc. etc. She wanted to ride again after shopping, and even the petting zoo didn't appease her.

The trauma part, however, didn't involve not getting to ride the pony again. For a day or so Petra kept grabbing her crotch and crying "ouchy ouchy!" We didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so thought it might be a urinary tract infection. We went to Kaiser, and the pediatrician wanted a urine sample, and said the quickest way to do it would be with a catheter. Well, Petra didn't much like this idea. She screamed and cried and fought off Me, Alison, and two nurses! They had to give up because they couldn't hold her down long enough to insert the catheter. Poor baby! We had to go with plan B, which involved a glue-on plastic bag. Petra didn't like this much better the "funny diaper pokes me!" Rather than sit around the hospital waiting, we went home, where she had some Mac and Cheese for comfort, then slept on the couch with Mama for 2 hours. Then she sat on my lap watching Wonder Pets until she cut loose (more than 3 hours after leaving the hospital), soaking me and getting only an ounce into the bag (enough for the tests at least). We dropped the sample at Kaiser, and Petra was so cheerful that we went to the beach, played in the park, and splashed in the wet sand. No mention again of "ouchy." The Pediatrician called us and told us everything was normal in the tests. D'oh, trauma for nothing! Poor baby!

Petra and I cut school on Valentine's day and played together. We had brunch with Eden in the morning, then visited Mama's work for a party, then to the park where we met MiraZoey (and traded email addresses for playdates- they are both within a month of each other in age). Then a good nap and a trip to a farmer's market for kettle corn and tamales for dinner. Yum! A good birthday for Dada.


Silly things she is saying now:
"Oh my gosh!"
"But why not?" (we hear this a lot, it's frequently used instead of "No!")
"This is my favorite ..... I love it very much!" (often used for toys that she has never seen before)
"Let's have a sleepover with Jenna!"

Petra is just shy of 3 feet tall now, and over 32 pounds. Oh my back!