Practicing Facial Expressions

It seems to me that Maxine often tries out her facial muscles without really having any idea what messages she is conveying. I consider this a pardonable social offense, as she is just a baby. However, if she continues doing this into her teens, I may have to take steps.

At any rate, I have decided to help her by publishing photos of her during these exercises, and labeling them appropriately. If you, my trusty readers, wish to add anything to my descriptions, please feel free to email me. Just let me know which picture you are talking about.

Kinda Blue

Forlorn

Not Amused

Distracted

Disappointed

She does smile from time to time, but it's brief. Horyon and I believe that she is really doing it to show that she is happy, though.

[Warning: the next session involved bodily functions that may embarrass you, offend you, or make you jealous.]

Today we went to the doctor. The last couple of days Maxine has had digestion problems. She spits up, she poops more often, and she toots like a fog horn. The vomiting is the biggest problem, because it makes her restless. (Isn't that true for all of us?) Once she vomits, it takes longer than usual to get back to sleep, and she seems to wake up sooner. Horyon has had a couple of nights with no more than an hour of concurrent sleep totaling only 3 or 4 hours for the night. Fortunately Friday was a holiday for us (APEC day, a non-standard holiday).

The doctor told us pretty much what I expected: it's normal. Just her guts growing up.

During the exam, he did something that was equal parts repulsive and cool: he put drops in Maxine's nose. This did not make her at all happy, and puzzled me a bit. Then he got down a little vacuum hose and a disposable head for it, and sucked the snot and boogers and stuff right out of her nose. This relieved my puzzlement, but seriously wiped out all possibility of happiness for Maxine. I imagine that the noise it made inside her head was part of it, but the experience as a whole must have been pretty shocking.

I think that it has improved her breathing. It makes sense, when one considers that we live next to a paint factory and a cement yard. Sometimes my nose-nuggets can get pretty...

Sorry. I got carried away there for a moment. I believe that my girls have gone to bed, and if I am to get a reasonable amount of sleep tonight, I should follow suite.

Peace,

Rob

p.s. Stupid spell-checker didn't know 'snot' or 'booger'. Now tell me, who can use a computer who doesn't know the important words?