I Thought Ridges Were Better?

Well, we went to Grand Rapids again today.  This time the Kidlet needed an upper GI.  For those of you who want to know, her digestive system appears to be 95% normal.  There is one part of the intestine (where the small intestine goes into the large, I think) where the surface is ridged instead of smooth.  What does this mean, you ask?  I have absolutely no clue.  So now we are waiting to hear from the doctor's office.  Her blood work came back earlier this week with not a single thing wrong, by the way.  Once again we wait....

While we were in Grand Rapids we went to the Frederik Meijer Sculpture Gardens, as planned.  The Kidlet said it was the most awesome place she had ever gone to!  Even MP3 announced, "Fun!" as I put him in the car to go home (he was asleep 2 minutes later....I think hiking all over the gardens wore him out!).  We saw all sorts of sculptures, including that gigantic horse she's been talking about so much!

The Kidlet and The American Horse

The Kidlet didn't want to leave!

Even MP3 found a sculpture to love.  He called

this one, "Rock!" and proceded to pet it.

(The Grand Rapid's Arch)

After a while, MP3 became a wee bit tired and Daddy put him on his shoulders.

It didn't take long for the little guy to find a comfortable position....

The highlight of the trip was the Butterflies are Blooming exhibit!  It was amazing!  The Kidlet even had a butterfly land on her shirt!  She had a grand time looking through the brochure we were handed, trying to figure out the species of each butterfly.  The plants were wonderful too!  Such interesting trees and flowers and vines:  it was quite the experience.

We are going to have to go back someday.  We didn't see even half of the gardens and we completely skipped the indoor sculptures.  We were only there for an  hour and a half, when you really need to spend a day there.  I think that the Children's Garden would have been much more interesting in summer, or at least late spring, when there's actually some live plants to see.  Oh, and the Kidlet really enjoyed the Carnivorous Plant House, too!  All in all, it was a really good day!

Here is my favorite picture of the day.....

Wait a minute.  I was wrong!

THIS is my favorite picture of the day...

Almost Two!

Well, MP3 is almost two and yesterday we hit another developmental milestone!  Hoo boy, what an important one it is, too....

Yesterday afternoon, MP3, for the very first time, had a TEMPER TANTRUM!  Yep, I'm such an awful mom that I didn't put his drink in the cup that he wanted (mainly because I didn't want him spilling all over the living room) so he screamed, and stomped, and sprawled out on the floor while rolling back and forth and crying and crying and crying.  The Kidlet left the room, the screaching hurt her ears so much.  After a few minutes of being ignored he eventually stopped.  When I handed him his sippy cup (which started the whole thing in the first place) he happily drained it and then watched some Spongebob (or as he calls it:  BobBob BobPants).

Let the joy begin!

Tummy Time!

After much waiting we finally got an appointment for the Kidlet to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. So we made the drive to Grand Rapids the other day since Traverse City, with it's "Top 100" hospital, does not have any pediatric specialists. Does that make any sense?

Anyway, we went down early enough so that we could have lunch at - brace yourself - Chucky Cheese. Now it just so happens that I have a very good friend who lives in Grand Rapids (she moved there when we were in our teens) and she was able to meet us there with her 2 cute kids! Everyone had a ton of fun and it was great seeing my friend for the first time is over 10 years.

At the doctor's, the poor Kidlet had 2 vials of blood drawn, during which she did very good. While waiting she jumped up and started for the door only a couple of times, and she held very still during the actual draw. They are testing her for celiac disease among other things, not that her symptoms seem (to me, at least) to have anything to do with celiac, and we have to go back in a few weeks for an upper GI to rule out malrotation. We have to be in the hospital by 8:45AM. Blech! He seemed quite adamant that we do the procedure down there and not here at Munson (maybe he has a good reason, maybe he doesn't...but I don't feel like pissing off the new doc), so another road trip is in our future.

The day before we went downstate, the Kidlet was telling me all about this horse sculpture by DaVinci that she learned about in art class (they're studying him in art this year) and how there's a copy of it in Grand Rapids. When I told her that we were going to GR the next day she got so excited and wanted to know if we might drive by it. So, for our next trip we are planning on going to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park (shhhhhhh! we haven't told her yet) to see the horse and - wait for it - the butterflies! We were thinking about the zoo, but mid-March seems a bit too cold for a Michigan zoo, so perhaps we'll go another time. Hopefully we'll have friends (even more friends) join us again!

MP3's favorite ride!

The Kidlet's favorite ride!

MP3 made a new friend!

My friend and her kids

Sharing the experience

The Kidlet recently bought (with her Christmas money from Bumpa) a DSi. Her brother thinks that it (or any game for that matter) is awesome and loves to watch his sister play!

Isn't this the cutest picture EVER?