Yesterday Matilda turned one. To celebrate, we opened a bottle of champagne with lunch (it took us till well after dinner to finish it). We sang Happy Birthday, a song I truly loathe, to Matilda no fewer than three times. Niclas gave her a slinky and a wind-up monkey. A stuffed cat. I let her nurse to sleep for a third, unscheduled nap as the poor kitten has ear infections again, still, requiring round 5 (I think) of antibiotics and a trip to the ear doctor on Tuesday.
Hanging in the ear doctor's waiting room was a shadow box labeled Foreign Objects Removed From Our Patients:
Turns out, we won't be having any foreign objects removed from our patient. We will be having foreign objects inserted into our patient. Matilda will be getting tubes in her ears, which is hardly a big deal and barely surgery. I'm not worried about it and am instead awaiting it with much excitement.
...Ok, that's a lie. I'm a little apprehensive about it as it IS surgery and she will be under general anesthesia. But it's not like they're going to do this to her, or rather, it's not like she's going to have to do this to herself:
(Niclas might have to do this to himself, however, but that's a ways and many conversations away.)
The doctor will make a microscopic incision in Matilda's ear drums and he'll insert very small tubes to drain the fluid that's been living behind them and causing the near-constant infections and making her feel crappy and in need of unscheduled third naps.
It was either this, give her antibiotics every day for the foreseeable future (no), or take her out of daycare (I wish). So! We have that to look forward to!
We've also got a birthday party coming up for her this weekend, so the baking 'round here is in full-swing. Yesterday I made two batches of chocolate cake and one batch of chocolate sauce. Here's Matilda wandering the house this morning with one of her baker's chocolate wrappers:
Later I'll post photos of her eating her cake(1) and ice cream after dinner(2) last night.
(1) Making the first batch of cake, I used the 1/2 cup measuring cup to dole out 2 cups of sugar because I was too lazy to find and/or wash the 1 cup measuring cup. And then I lost count and wasn't sure I added 4 1/2 cups to equal the 2 cups the recipe called for. So I added another 1/2 cup, in the form of 2 1/4 cup measuring cups as by that point the 1/2 cup measuring cup was wet with oil and I didn't want to wash it or stick it in the sugar canister as is. Turns out, I had added enough sugar the first time around and while the cake turned out ok, it was a little sunken with the weight of the extra sugar.
Clearly, I needed to re-do the whole thing. This left us with 4 9-inch round chocolate cakes, one of which we sacrificed as dessert and the other of which I froze along with the 2 correctly measured cake layers.
[...It's clear here that I am tired beyond the point of living, yes?]
(2) I'm sure this is a toddler phase and if I wasn't so tired as to be clinically dead, I'd look it up in one of our baby books or just Google it. But Matilda pretty much refuses to eat anything made for her.
Oatmeal pancakes with strawberries and butter? She throws them to the floor. My oatmeal and banana breakfast she will eat till it's gone and I am left hungry. Clementine sections broke in half and put on her high chair tray? Straight to the floor with comically loud sound effects. Niclas' breakfast of bread with pate? She'll eat an entire slice. But if I make her a second slice of bread with cheese, she'll whip her head around to ensure she uses the cheese as pomade and not as a source of nutrition.
She's also started refusing bottles. Purses her lips, arches her back. Strains to get away. And you know what? Fine. We were going to do away with the bottles soon enough anyway. WE CAN START TODAY, LITTLE LADY. YOU HANG UP THAT PHONE WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU.
