Ears and nose and throat--oh my!

So I finally went to see an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat doctor) like my speech teacher suggested. She thought I might have fluid in my ears that was making everyone's talking sound garbled which also made my speaking garbled. Mommy seems to understand what I want (most of the time) so I don't really see what the problem is. I guess when I'm not with Mommy, it's important for other people to understand me too.

Anyway, I had my hearing checked almost a year ago and the test showed some fluid in my ears, so they wanted me to wait a bit and get retested to see if the fluid would drain on its own. Turns out the fluid is still there. Not only that, but the doctor says I have big tonsils and adenoids (not quite sure what those are) which is why I snore at night and breathe through my mouth a lot. He recommended that I get tubes in my ears and my tonsils and adenoids taken out all at once to fix me up good as new.

Actually, I heard Mommy telling this to Daddy later on. I was too traumatized from the doctor checking my ears to pay attention to what he said afterward. (Not that I would have heard all of it anyway, because I have fluid in my ears!) Mommy and two nurses had to hold me down so the doctor could stick some cone shaped thing in my ear and look for fluid. When I finally thought he was done, he just turned my head to the other side and looked in the other ear! The only good thing about the doctor's office was the waiting room where I got to play with a bunch of toys.

Anyway, for those of you who aren't familiar with tubes in the ears, they're actually really small--you won't be able to see them. And they're supposed to fall out on their own in 6-9 months once my eardrums have healed.

Actual size of a tube:

I'm not too worried about the ear surgery--it's the tonsils that seem a bit scary and painful. Although, I am looking forward to lots of ice cream!

CA Pt. 3--Sea World

This is the last thing we did in California. We went to Sea World! It was so fun! There were animals swimming everywhere.

Mommy and I are checking out some dolphins while they're hanging out and playing before they eat.


My favorite part about seeing the dolphins was splashing in their water. Mommy did it first, so of course I had to copy her. I think she was trying to get the dolphins to swim closer so we could touch them. I just liked splashing.

Next we got to touch Manta Rays. They were scary looking! They looked like they were flying underwater and had long thing tails. Their skin felt slimy.

They didn't seem afraid at all and swam right up to the edge of their tank.

Some even poked their noses out of the water so we could pet them.

Guess what I'm standing on. Yup, a rock! Guess what I did after this picture was taken. Yup, I jumped off!

This was a pretty cool place to hang out while everyone else decided what to see after lunch.

It was kind of cold that day, but luckily we only got rained on once--really hard. It was right before the Shamu show. I didn't quite get what we were going to see and I thought it was way more fun to climb over the wet benches and jump in puddles.

But once the show started, I decided the big fish might be more interesting than the puddles I was sitting in.

Me and Daddy with my Uncle Matt and cousin Stephanie.

We saw a fun sea lion show. It was getting chilly so Mommy wrapped me in a blanket. I swear I was having fun, even though my face seems to show boredom. That's the way I always look when I'm having a great time!

Checking out the sharks in an underwater tube.

Remember this scene from Jaws 3? I haven't seen that movie, but Daddy mentioned something about it.

We were all wet and tired by the time we left Sea World. I didn't even feeling like running away from Mommy and Daddy anymore, but was perfectly happy to chill in my stroller. It was a totally fun day.

CA Pt. 2--Indian Canyons

Gma and Gpa de Jong had to work on Friday while we were visiting, so Mommy, Daddy, and I went to the Indian Canyons in Palm Springs. I guess this is a place where Indians used to live. There were lots of palm trees, lots of rocks, and a little stream.

The palm trees were so tall I could barely see the tops of them!


There were houses made of palm tree leaves (fronds) that I got to run in and out of.

I had a blast while we were there. Look at this giant rock I was able to pick up and throw.

And there were tons of rocks for me to jump off of. (Those of you who know me know I love to jump off of anything and everything.) Usually I jump by myself, but Mommy thought I could use a little help this time.

Daddy lent a helping hand too.

There was a trail you could follow that was about a mile long. It took us about half an hour to go a quarter mile. I kept running the wrong way (Apparently, the opposite direction of Mommy and Daddy is the wrong way.)

And of course I had to stop and admire/throw all of the rocks I found along the trail.

These other trail walkers were nice enough to stop and point out some rocks I had missed during my explorations.

Taking a breather.

You can't really see the size of this rock that I found, but you can tell how big it is by the size of the hole it left behind.

Jumping off a rock.

Isn't this rock cool? It's ginormous!

Mommy and Daddy thought I was moving too slow sometimes, so Daddy helped me along. We actually didn't make it the full mile because it was taking too long and I kept getting distracted.

Ah, the lovely desert. The background of this picture is slightly different than you see in Washington.

What a fun day!

California Pt. 1--the de Jong's

A couple of weeks ago, we flew to California with my Aunt Andrea and cousin Melanie. We visited Grandma and Grandpa de Jong for the first two days, and then Daddy's brother Uncle Matt and his family.

At Grandma and Grandpa de Jong's:

My buddy Cujo is so awesome. He's not as afraid of my as he used to be (Man's best friend). And he is so nice. I shared my Kix cereal with him and he barely touched my hand with his mouth when he ate them!

I found a cool flower in Gma and Gpa's backyard. It sure looked different than flowers from home.

I decided to give it to Cujo.

But apparently, he didn't want it.


The day before we got to CA, the weather was sunny and 80 degrees. The day we got there, it was cloudy and 60 degrees and basically stayed that way through the whole weekend. But it didn't really rain on us at Gma and Gpa's, so I got to play outside.

I love jumping off anything and everything.

And when I say, "Mama jump!", she does!

I'm sure I must look better than that when I jump....at least, I hope so.

A new habit of mine--chewing/sucking on my fingers or thumb. Mommy is hoping it's not a permanent habit.

We hardly have any pictures of me with both Mommy and Daddy. Probably because I hate sitting still for pictures. We're having professional family pics taken this weekend. I guess I better get my act together so they turn out better than the one below.

We took the cushions off the couch so Melanie could sleep next to Aunt Andrea in the guest room (Andrea had the bed). I had fun jumping (shocker) next to Grandpa on the couch, even without cushions.

But I settled down eventually.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was on Saturday, but Mommy and I made a special treat for Daddy the day before. We made Daddy's hearts while he was at work on Friday so that they would be a surprise for him when he got home.

It was so much fun making the sugar cookies. Mommy didn't even care that I got things messy.

Here I am cutting a heart out of the dough:

And then putting it on the cookie sheet:


Spreading the flour around so the dough doesn't stick to the counter (with a little extra tossed on the floor just in case any dough fell on the floor):

Rolling out more dough for more cookies:

Then came the decorating. Mommy made some of the frosting pink and she gave me a plastic knife to spread it on the cookies.

It was tricky to spread the frosting, so I just kind of glopped it on as best I could.

You have to shake the sprinkles jar really hard to get enough sprinkles out. I prefer just opening the jar, dumping the sprinkles on a table, and licking them up (see Sprinkles! posting).

Eventually I decided to skip the hearts and put the frosting directly into my mouth.

Two knives are better than one! (Can you believe Mommy let me put a knife in my mouth!!! What was she thinking?)

The finished cookies. Daddy was very surprised and loved his special treat. Can you tell which cookies I decorated and which ones Mommy did?

Mmmmmm. Cookies!