Where To Begin

Yesterday we took Elise for her follow up with the eye doctor. We saw a fellow NICU dad and his little boy there. It was fun knowing someone, and his little boy just came off his at-home oxygen the day before yesterday so he was very excited to be having his first full day with no wires.

Back to the appointment. The eye doctor has a special little waiting room in back for preemies while their dilating eye drops kick in rather than having them out with all the germ infested cute kids in the main waiting room. While the drops did their magic, Kit went to get gas so we didn't have to do it after the appointment.

Meanwhile, I realized that I neglected to bring Elise's pacifier with us. I've remembered every other time we've left the house and never needed it. Of course, the time that I forget is the time when both the technician and the doctor ask if we have it. Luckily, Elise was a trooper and we didn't need it. And even better: she no longer shows any signs of retinopathy of prematurity!! So we don't have to go back for another 6 months.

Kit made an observation yesterday. I've started talking very fast. He said he never realized I could talk so fast. I've told him in the past of my skills as a child and of my infamous quote in third grade (that made it's way to a framed dot-matrix print out from our cool computers at school after my GATE teacher found my response to her suggestion to basically stop talking and color just as fast as I was talking hilarious), "I can't color as fast as I talk or else I would go out of the lines." We realized that mommy not getting enough adult interaction has begun. And apparently the result for me is talking really, really fast. Kit said he's even having to mentally pause to take in exactly what I'm saying because it all comes so fast. Uh oh, be forewarned if you talk to me that I'm apparently back to my junior high girl fast talking once again.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post is that Kit has begun testing Elise's musical appreciation. He was listening to music on Pandora last week and enjoying seeing what she did and didn't like. (Speaking of Pandora...has anyone used Slacker yet? I read about it in a magazine last week but haven't checked it out yet. Is it really that much better than Pandora?) Here is the outcome of his first test:

Likes

• John Denver (especially Leaving on a Jet Plane)
• Peter, Paul & Mary
• The Kingston Trio
• The Highway Men
• Pete Seeger
  

Dislikes

• Simon & Garfunkle
• James Taylor
• Cat Stevens

Of note, I would have no idea I was listening to any of these folks should they come on the radio. We've discovered that, although I recognize lots of songs, I almost never know who performs them. Kit's trying to teach me, but I don't think my brain is capable of remember such facts in most cases.

Oh, and today I'm taking Elise on our first car trip alone. Eek! We're meeting up with another NICU mom and her son for a walk since that's about all any of us recently released families can do. (Elise will be in her sling so don't worry about germs passing from baby to baby...as if any of you are nearly as mentally cautious as we are about her health.) I'm super excited to hang out with them!

On to the best part of the post...

Oh wait, I just downloaded the pictures off of the camera and don't have any new ones of Elise on there. Oops! We've been taking them on our camera phones so I guess you'll just have to wait until next time for a photo because I need to go eat breakfast with my hubby and then get ready to go on that walk. Sorry!