Little Sickie / Staples Be Gone!

I've spent most of my day on the phone with/in doctors offices. Last night around dinner time we noticed that Anja was getting some diarrhea. It got pretty bad for awhile, so naturally, we freaked out a little bit. She was also pretty cranky all night. So first thing this morning I called and got her an appointment with Dr. Beardmore--who says she's perfectly healthy! He said if it weren't for me telling him about the diarrhea, he'd think she was a perfectly healthy little girl. That was great news for us. The best part about the visit (besides finding out that she was fine) was when he noticed the little hole in her skin next to her ear. I don't know if I've already posted this fact, but she has a little hole in the exact same place I have one. Martin calls in the hole in my head, but really it's very tiny--about the size of a piercing hole. We were excited to see that she has one in the same place. Well, today we actually found out what they are--they are leftover GILLS!!!! Evidently we all have a line of gills down our faces when we are still tiny little embryos and as we develop into normal, human looking beings, the gills fill in and disappear. Those little holes next to our ears are leftover gills that never got filled in. Isn't that AWESOME?!?!

Well, her appointment was at 10:15, which meant I had to reschedule my own appointment (which was at 11:00) to 1:00. At my appointment I got my staples taken out! Yaaay! One step closer to wearing my fat pants and not having to wear the same smelly sour-milk-covered overalls! I had 15 staples in my belly. My mom thinks that's a lot, she claims when she had her c-sections she only had 5 staples. How many did all the rest of you medical victims have? Anyway, I was very nervous about having them taken out, even though Martin assured me it wouldn't hurt. He was right--it didn't. And afterward my mom stayed in the car with Anja while I ran into Vienna for a chai!

Oh, and the nurse mispronounced her name. The receptionist, however, got it right!

I'm getting excited for Christmas music. ...I'm getting excited for COMFORT, COMFORT!!!!!! Sometimes I sing it to Anja, even though it isn't Advent yet. I figure she doesn't know the difference.

Speaking of Anja and her musical tastes, I'm figuring stuff out. She likes bluegrass music--we listened to the Dillards in the car and she loved them... or at least, she didn't complain. Her daddy sings her the bluegrass songs too, and that makes her happy when he does that. Unfortunately, my fear came true this afternoon when I broke out the banjo. She is not a fan. However, this might just be my bad playing and not the instrument itself. BUT, to make up for that sad fact, this afternoon she was having kind of a meltdown and nothing could console her until I put on the Kate Rusby album that I listened to non-stop through the last weeks of my pregnancy and all throughout the second half of labor. She calmed down immediately and for the first few tracks stayed awake and alert, just sitting on my lap listening. Then she fell asleep. Very amazing and wonderful!

She also appears to like Bob Dylan. Another good thing!