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From Wikipedia:

Nursemaid’s elbow is a dislocation of the elbow joint caused by a sudden pull on the extended pronated arm, such as by an adult tugging on an uncooperative child.

In radial head subluxation, there is little complaint of pain, and the patient generally reports pain in the distal forearm. Radial head subluxation is a common pediatric presentation generally occurring between the ages of 1 and 3 years. The mean age of presentation is just older than 2 years.

The “uncooperative child” part of this definition may clue you in to how we have recently become acquainted with this injury.  For Lily, the simple act (though often not so, in her case) of getting dressed led to a dislocation.  It was so sad to see her crying in discomfort, holding her arm close against her body to guard against the pain.  A quick visit to the pediatrician, a simple maneuver to realign the elbow, and she was back to her happy self.  Unfortunately this injury leaves a child at risk for re-injury, particularly in the several weeks following, so it’s no more “One, two, three–” and swinging her up in the air between us as we walk along, at least for a while.

And the Child Protective Services’ file on us grows a little longer…

My friend Abby has posted a list of her Fundamental Five baby gear items, and she’s asked others to give their top five lists as well. One thing I’ve learned from my experience thus far is that no one item is completely indispensable. We did the first-time parent thing and got one of everything at Babies R Us, but in reality we could have gotten by with much less. But there have been a few items that we fell in love with, so here’s my list:

So that’s my list.  I also have to agree with Abby’s list that sleep sacks and swaddling blankets are up there pretty high, as well as our space-saver booster seat (instead of a highchair).  Hey, Abby — maybe we need to come up with the Top 5 Most Useless Baby Items list!  I’d start with the carseat mosquito net that Bill insisted we needed…

Two weeks ago when I picked Lily up from Parents’ Day Out, I was mortified to be told that she had bitten a girl three times. Or at least tried to bite — the teachers intervened quickly. They said it appeared to be “territorial” in nature, as in, “You’re in my space, move it.” That part did not surprise me much, as Lily is in the habit of pushing and shoving me out of her space all the time. What Bill and I found interesting upon reflection later was that it was the same girl Lily tried to bite every time. Kind of made us wonder if maybe she had it coming. Don’t get me wrong, we are appalled and won’t tolerate biting as a means to express anger or frustration. But Bill said, “Is it terrible that I feel just a little proud of Lily for defending herself?” And I agreed; it gave me a small feeling of satisfaction to know that my tiny little girl would not let anyone walk all over her.

Last week, it was the same report from PDO, and I told Lily’s teacher, “I just don’t know how to handle this new behavior. It’s not something we see at home, so I don’t have an opportunity to address it myself.”

Well, that was then. Over the last couple of days, I havewitnessed said behavior…firsthand. There are two things that strike me as funny: First, she is very deliberate and retaliative in her biting. And second, she exerts almost zero bite pressure. She got mad today when I tried to put her in the carseat, and I finally had to kind of strong-arm her into the seat, at which time she grabbed my finger, brought it to her mouth, and bit down ever so lightly. And she watched me for a reaction. Since this kind of thing is new to both Bill and me, we don’t really have a set plan for discipline. I did try time-out once, but the point seemed lost on her. This time I said, shaking my head sadly, “Oh Lily, that is not a nice thing to do to someone you love. And I love you,” and I kissed her. I feel that, now that I have seen what’s happening, it is clear that she is just experimenting with this newfound misbehavior. So I really don’t want to give her too much of a reaction, for fear that she will utilize it more and more as a means to make her feelings known.

I sound a bit soft, eh? Maybe. We really won’t tolerate biting, though, so if it continues (despite my not-so-tough love), I’ll have to look for a firmer form of disciplinary action, I suppose. Until then, I will just do my darnedest not to laugh. Because — can you believe it — she is adorable even when she’s angry!

Great day.  Bill and I had the chance to see Barack Obama in KC today, and my parents graciously offered to keep Lily.  At first I wanted to take her, because I could just envision the photo on the cover of Life Magazine of Obama kissing my baby girl on the forehead, but we were really glad we didn’t take her.  Because it was CROWDED.  I’ve heard an intitial estimate of 75,000 people, packed onto the lawn next to the WWI Liberty Memorial.  We got there early to try to get a good vantage point, and we did — about 100 feet away from the podium.  To get this spot, we arrived two and a half hours before Obama was scheduled to speak, which meant we were packed shoulder to shoulder (and my back to some guy’s gut) for a good long while.  Most of the people were friendly, but then there was some pushing and shoving, and things threatened to get ugly.  Thankfully everyone kept their cool and, following several local politicians, Obama took the stage.

I knew it was the same speech he’d given in St. Louis just hours earlier — the same speech he’s undoubtedly given dozens of times, and I didn’t care.  It was fantastic just to see and hear him in person and think, “This is the next President of the United States of America.”  I’ve paid my dues as a Missourian — voting year after year to see my vote outweighed in the elections, maybe a handful of Democrats winning local or state office, but the Presidential electoral votes going red each four years.  This year, Missouri is a swing state, and I actually feel some hope in my heart.  Generally I have kept the C-Log pretty bipartisan, so I hope this post doesn’t offend anyone, but… Obama/Biden ‘08!

If you ignore the fact that Lily had access to a plastic knife, the following clip is pretty funny (+ a bit scary).  We ran out of cabinet/drawer locks, so we have two drawers that she is able to access.  She retrieved a plastic knife from one and set out to jimmy the child safety locks on the cabinet and drawer.  Given time, I’m pretty sure she’d master it! We’re off to buy more locks…

I’m running several days behind on my blog posts, so here are pics from our fun this past weekend.  It was a perfect day last Saturday to head to the Weston Red Barn Farm to pet some animals, take a hayride, and pick some pumpkins.  We were NOT the only parents to feel this way, as the place was absolutely swarming.  We couldn’t help but think back to a year ago, when Lily barely acknowleged the animals, and we had to prop her up against a pumpkin to get a good picture.  Here are my favorite shots from the day…

Note how she is clutching at Bill as he puts her on the pony.  This was her first time on a horse, and she was far from thrilled about it.  But we encouraged her to stay on for the lap around the yard, and by the end she had loosened her grip…slightly. 

And, for comparison, here’s one from a year ago:

Our San Francisco and Napa vacation, summarized in pictures.  We’ve actually been home for a week, but it has taken me a while to sit down and sort through the photos.  I especially like the pic of Bill shivering in the chilly San Francisco evening, wearing his “San Francisco” sweatshirt freshly purchased for the occasion.  Apparently he missed the part of the pre-trip conversation when I said it’s easy to spot the tourists in SF because they are the ones wearing shorts and shivering in their souvenir sweatshirts when the evening fog blows in.  It became a running joke because I had to keep mentioning how toasty I was in the various sweaters I had brought along.  Once we got to Napa, though, it was sunny and mid-80’s — beautiful weather for walking the grounds of the wineries and enjoying a picnic lunch.

It was a fabulous four days, and I only missed the peanut about 92% of it.  Really, though, it was a great opportunity for Bill and me to just be two again.  We were free to stop for a beer at a dive by the bay, dine late and long over lingering conversation and another glass of wine, and quietly sip our coffee in the hazy morning fog.  We dialed home for bi-hourly reports as Lily was dealing with a stomach bug that presented just after we left town.  Despite being a little off, she had a good time with Nana and Papa, though they reported she did start asking for us after awhile (which kind of makes us feel good, you know?).

It was the right amount of time to be gone, and we were almost more excited to get home to Lily than we had been to go on the trip in the first place.  She didn’t exactly dance for joy, but she seemed contented to find us both home when she woke the next morning…at 5:45.  And so it was back to business as usual, which is pretty nice, actually.